GOP senators privately 'concerned' Rubio's State Department may be breaking the law

A group of Republican senators are taking their concerns over President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid grants and obliteration of the U.S. Agency for International Development to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The group – which includes Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) – came together with their Democratic colleagues to express alarm to Rubio’s State Department in letters critical of the order, according to a new Washington Post report.

In the letters, the senators wrote that they believe the department is violating the law by failing to notify and consult with Congress while pushing through with the plan, the publication said. They asked Rubio to answer questions before the committee and defend the freeze at a hearing on Capitol Hill next month.

The group added that while they are supportive of Rubio’s right to review federal programs and reduce waste, they were also “concerned” that Congress was not consulted during the undoing of USAID and foreign aid, “which they noted is required by law,” the Post reported Thursday.

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“They mark some of the first signs of meaningful — if private — GOP pushback to the Trump administration’s striking encroachment on Congress’s power of the purse and betray some frustration with Rubio’s lack of responsiveness to his former colleagues,” the publication said.

The letters, which were dated earlier this month and sent by members of the Senate Appropriations Committee – chaired by Collins – also flagged to the State Department that it had acted “in contravention of law” by withholding funding for programs under a separate congressional funding authority.

The waiver process was also criticized by the senators as lacking “structure and clarity,” according to the Post report.

“We are alarmed by reports that food is at risk of rotting in ports, lifesaving medicines are stuck in warehouses, and counterterrorism programs are being suspended, including in Somalia,” they wrote. “We suspect personnel actions at USAID and your Department … combined with unclear guidance to Department and USAID contracting officers, have created confusion that prevents funds from being quickly disbursed for vital programs that have received waivers.”