9. Agency for International Development · Notable
Insert standard policy provisions in all USAID grants and contracts
Printed page 263 9. Agency for International Development
“The next conservative Administration should immediately implement language on key policy topics as standard provisions in all grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. These provisions should include language on implementing the Policy on Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance, imposing conditions on funding to multilateral organizations, and increasing accountability and transparency.”
What has happened
- Partially done
OMB proposed a government-wide rewrite of the Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance to "improve transparency, accountability, and oversight for Federal awards", with 44 agencies including State and the Agency for International Development proposing conforming adopting regulations. This is the accountability-and-transparency provision of the ask, at proposed-rule stage only.
- Partially done
State published two standard award terms reaching every instrument it funds under the Foreign Assistance Act, the FREEDOM Support Act, the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act and the SEED Act: "Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance" and its companion "Combating Gender Ideology in Foreign Assistance" (both effective 2026-02-26). That is the mechanism the Quote asked for - policy language inserted as a standard provision in all grants, cooperative agreements and contracts - and it delivers the first of the three named topics in terms. It is State's award stream, not USAID's: USAID ceased implementing foreign assistance on 2025-07-01. The two other named topics, conditions on funding to multilateral organizations and increased accountability and transparency, are not in these award terms.
- State Department rule: Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance - standard award term across State's foreign-assistance authorities, effective 2026-02-26
- State Department rule: Combating Gender Ideology in Foreign Assistance - standard award term
- Marco Rubio, "Making Foreign Aid Great Again" (State Department Spanish text): from 1 July 2025 USAID officially ceases to implement foreign assistance, which passes to the Department of State
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- The Mandate’s third topic, “imposing conditions on funding to multilateral organizations”, was searched for and not found as an award term: a Federal Register search for the quoted phrases returned nothing on point, and the FY2026 appropriations act handles multilateral conditionality through appropriations provisos (section 7048 written-agreement requirements), not through a standard provision in awards.
- #669 and #670 (Chapter 9 p. 261) carry the same two January 2026 rules for the PLGHA ask itself.
Researched 2026-08-28.
- EO 14332 grant-process sweep (2026-09-29). The object is agency-wide grant terms, and the item is already partial on State’s own standard award terms (2026-01-27), which is the kind of instrument the rule asks for. EO 14332 adds nothing on the three topics the Quote names (Protecting Life, multilateral conditions, accountability and transparency). Status unchanged.
- Action
- issue
- Object
- Standard provisions in USAID grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts
- ID
- 680