US State Department Advised to Cut Almost All Grants That Fund Democracy Overseas

The US State Department has been advised to terminate grants to nearly all remaining programmes awarded under the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), which would effectively end the department's role in funding pro-democracy programming in some of the world's most hostile totalitarian nations.

- Andrew Roth

The review could affect nearly $1.3bn in grants, three State Department officials told the Guardian, citing briefings on the results of a foreign assistance review produced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Of 391 active grants, only two were not recommended to be cut, the officials said: one programme in China and one in Yemen.

The recommendations would "terminate about 80% of all US government foreign assistance at the State Department", said an official briefed on the findings of the review.