(WASHINGTON)—In response to the Trump Administration’s suspension of assistance programs carried out by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), PEN America released the following statement calling for the urgent reversal of this decision:

The Trump administration’s 90-day suspension of virtually all development assistance programs across USAID and the State Department is a brutal assault on civil society in the U.S. and countries around the world, and by stifling the work of activists, journalists, writers, and others fighting back against oppression, it offers a gift to autocrats the world over. While framed as a “pause” to “reassess” foreign policy goals, this abrupt disruption of billions of dollars in aid–including for work to advance democracy, human rights, and good governance–will in fact undermine longstanding U.S. foreign policy priorities, including the promotion and protection of free expression globally. 

The long-term effect of this callous policy will be to devastate the global civil society community that is dependent on U.S. assistance, and to muzzle the writers, journalists, activists, and artists who fight for a more free and just world. Even if all of the assistance were to restart in 90 days–an unlikely prospect–grave damage will already have been done. The immediate human cost will be high and devastating: funding that enables HIV treatment, child nutrition programs, and maternal care–all serving millions of people–will immediately cease. 

In countries from the Philippines and Ukraine to Zimbabwe, local civil society organizations fighting to serve their fellow citizens, hold governments to account, foster peace, and advance democracy and human rights–often while facing grave threats from their own governments–will be gutted. Many independent local media outlets will also be weakened, limiting their ability to do their work, and to report on the many layered impacts of this suspension. Authoritarians are surely celebrating the devastation of the civil society they have long sought to silence. 

As just one example of the perverse effects of this order, the suspension of assistance includes an exception for military assistance to the brutal authoritarian government of Egypt, which has effectively squashed free expression and put countless writers, artists, journalists, and activists behind bars; but U.S. support for Egypt’s struggling civil society will cease. 

In the U.S., civil society organizations that carry out international development, democracy, and peacebuilding work will be severely hobbled, with smaller organizations likely forced to shutter. While dealing with the devastating effects of this order, the organizations most impacted will likely feel unable to speak out against it, out of fear that this much needed support could be cut off permanently.  

We urge Secretary of State Marco Rubio to urgently reverse this suspension, and call on Congress to act to ensure the funds they have appropriated for the advancement of development and democracy around the world are permitted to flow to the brave individuals and organizations they were intended to support. 

About PEN America

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.

Contact: Suzanne Trimel, STrimel@PEN.org, (201) 247-5057