6. Department of State · Notable
Make the USAID Administrator Director of Foreign Assistance at State
Printed page 194 6. Department of State
“For example, the next administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is technically subordinate to the State Department, should be authorized to take on the additional role of Director of Foreign Assistance with the rank of Deputy Secretary and oversee all foreign assistance.”
Printed again in Chapter 9.
Printed page 255 9. Agency for International Development
“The USAID Administrator should be authorized to take on the additional role of Director of Foreign Assistance (DFA) with the rank of Deputy Secretary at the Department of State in charge of all U.S. foreign assistance.”
What has happened
- Partially done
Delegation of Authority No. 597-1 revoked and replaced Delegation 597, adding the Assistant Secretary for Disaster and Humanitarian Response and appointment authority to the same Under Secretary. The Director of Foreign Assistance position survives only as a set of delegated authorities exercised at Under Secretary level.
- Partially done
The Secretary of State delegated to a single official "all authorities vested in or delegated to the Director of Foreign Assistance", together with those of the Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration, the Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the Global AIDS Coordinator, the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Health Security and Diplomacy and the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (Delegation of Authority No. 597, published 2025-09-05). One official at State now oversees all foreign assistance, which is the outcome the Quote wants - but the official is an Under Secretary, not the USAID Administrator, and not of Deputy Secretary rank; USAID's functions were absorbed into State on 2025-07-01 and there is no longer a USAID Administrator to hold the role.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Every source this Status rests on is allowlisted and was read in full; none of it was off the allowlist or unreadable.
State Delegation of Authority No. 634 (reviewed 2026-10-04). Nearby, no event. Our search of new Federal Register documents did not link Delegation of Authority by the Secretary of State to the Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (FR 2026-20263, published 2026-10-02, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/02/2026-20263/delegation-of-authority-by-the-secretary-of-state-to-the-official-performing-the-duties-of-the) to this item. We read the full text. Dated 2026-09-18 and in effect until 2027-06-30, it delegates only the approval of FY2018–2025 OE, AEECA, DA, ESF, GHP, DF, CCF, IDA and TI funds “solely associated with the termination of USAID awards and the wind-down of USAID functions”. The use of those funds is reported at least every two months to the Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Assistance, and Religious Freedom, who keeps the Director of Foreign Assistance authorities under Delegation 597-1. The delegation does not name the official. It hands over no Director of Foreign Assistance authority, so the first event’s note stands: an official performing the duties of a vacant office, for closeout, is not a USAID Administrator holding the role.
- Action
- reinstate
- Object
- Director of Foreign Assistance position
- ID
- 523