The new US administration led by Donald Trump is taking measures to retain foreign currency in the United States, including cutting off funding for international aid.

In the first days after taking office, the Trump administration announced a 90-day suspension of USAID support around the world. Mozambique was covered by the measure. The issue was debated for the first time in the US Congress a few days ago in an access debate in which Mozambique and South Africa were cited as examples where aid seemed unnecessary without political agreements.

While Republicans and Democrats debated whether Elon Musk's disintegration of the $40 billion-a-year agency was belated or reckless, the House Foreign Affairs Committee also offered insights about the countries and programs that have fallen out of favor on Capitol Hill.

President Brian Mast of Florida opened the February 13 debate by denouncing several examples of what he considered unnecessary spending, including economic support programs in North Africa.

"Twenty-two million dollars to increase tourism in Tunisia and Egypt, that's not saving lives," said Mast. "Five hundred and twenty million dollars to pay consultants to teach people in Africa about climate change - that's not medicine."

Republican witness Max Primorac, former acting assistant administrator of USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance in the first Trump administration and author of the conservative Heritage Foundation's governance project, Project 2025, for his part, singled out South Africa and Mozambique as two countries where the US should not be.

"Foreign aid is not an international welfare program. USAID is not an international NGO. They must align themselves with American interests and values," said Primorac. "Congress must also do its part. Why should pro-Hamas South Africa, Beijing's point country in Africa, receive billions of dollars in aid from us? Instead, we should support our friends."

The comments were made after President Trump suspended bilateral aid to South Africa on February 7, due to legislation that allows the expropriation of land from white farmers in limited circumstances.

Primorac also criticized the disputed election of President Daniel Chapo in Mozambique.

"The government, just two months before we came here, provided its port to allow the Chinese navy to project its power into the western Indian Ocean," he said. "So there has to be a much better affinity between what we do on the development aid side and the diplomacy side."

If they take us for granted, and their partner is China, they'll learn, as I've told many, that they don't know how good their situation was until it's gone.

Pressed on the issue during a break in the hearing, Mast said he agreed that aid should be dictated by political considerations.

"If these are diplomacy policies, right, there's a transaction for that diplomacy, right? They need something. We want to help with that hand up, but there's something we need from the country or region as well," Mast told The Africa Report.

"And if we're being taken for granted, and their partner is China, they're going to learn, as I've said to many, that they don't know how good the situation was until it's gone."

"Absolutely ridiculous." "Totally absurd." "No need."

The Democrats' witness, former USAID chief Andrew Natsios, didn't mince words when asked about the accusations by Trump and his representative in government, Musk, that USAID was a fundamentally corrupt agency.

A conservative who served as President George W. Bush's administrator, Natsios said he eliminated dozens of programs Republicans didn't agree with during his tenure, without destroying the agency, as Musk and Trump are doing now.

"Humanitarian assistance and health should be done on the basis of need alone, not politics," he told The Africa Report. "The rest of the budget should be allocated on the basis of strategic interests."

He called it a "mistake" to abandon countries that don't follow the US line.

"USAID's visibility makes it easier for American diplomats to deal with these countries," said Natsios. "The most influential American institution in most of these countries is not the Defense Department or the State Department. It's USAID."

By abandoning countries like South Africa and Mozambique, he said, the US would be ceding ground to its rivals.

"Wherever there are natural resources, the Russians are making these deals, and the Chinese," he said. "We should be there."

He also defended the tourism programs attacked by Mast, pointing out that the sector is responsible for more than 10% of the jobs in Egypt.

Some African governments will no doubt be pleased with the changes at USAID.

Mast opened the hearing by referring to a recent conversation with Uganda's ambassador to the US, Robie Kakonge, who criticized USAID's support for LGBT initiatives after the country passed its anti-homosexuality law.

During a debate last month at the US Institute of Peace, he said that Kakonge "stood up and said that these programs were doing nothing to improve relations between our nations".

African leaders have also opposed climate programs that restrict the development of fossil fuels. Natsios said he agreed that changes were needed there too. (Source: The Africa Report)