On Wednesday night at 8 p.m., we received notification that the State Department was seeking to terminate five of our nine cooperative agreements with the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). These cooperative agreements are for programs in Thailand, Iraq, Chad, Ethiopia, and Uganda.

More terminations are promised for organizations that have been PRM partners, so we are unsure whether our remaining agreements will be spared. These programs provide lifesaving support to forcibly displaced people that host countries cannot provide on their own.

JRS/USA strongly support the provision of foreign assistance that advances US interests, agreeing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent statement that “an America-first State Department is not an America-only State Department.”

Right now, we’re trying to get our arms around what the full impacts will be. While there’s no question premature termination of agreements with the US government would be painful, we’re working with supporters, our international office, and our board to determine next steps and how we can minimize negative impacts on the displaced people we serve.