During consideration of a continuing appropriations bill to fund the federal government through the end of fiscal 2025 (H.R. 1968), Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) offered an amendment to reduce funding levels for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). A press release from Paul’s office after the vote explained that the amendment would have codified “Secretary of State Rubio and DOGE’s cuts to foreign aid” and would have cut “most of the waste, fraud, and abuse that has plagued USAID for decades.”

The Senate rejected Paul’s amendment on March 14, 2024 by a vote of 27 to 73 (Roll Call 132). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because foreign aid, not being one of the enumerated powers granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, is unconstitutional. In fact, foreign aid should be not just reduced, but eliminated entirely.