While the U.S. bishops have yet to comment on the Trump administration’s freeze on federal grant, loan, and other financial assistance programs, they have asked Catholics to contact their members of Congress with concerns about a separate foreign aid freeze enacted last week.
On Jan. 26, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that consistent with an executive order from President Donald Trump he had paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the Statement Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The pause, Rubio said, is so a review can take place of all foreign assistance programs “to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First Agenda.”
“President Trump stated clearly that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people,” he said in a statement. “Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative.”
On Jan. 30, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sent out a joint action alert with Catholic Relief Services, its international humanitarian arm, asking the faithful to tell their local Congress members that they’re against the freeze, saying that it “will be detrimental to millions of our sisters and brothers who need access to lifesaving humanitarian, health and development assistance.”
Catholic Relief Services receives significant funding from the federal government. The organization received over $928 million in funding from federal government grants in Fiscal Year 2023, according to tax forms posted to its website.
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