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United States foreign aid

United States foreign aid, also known as US foreign assistance consists of a variety of tangible and intangible forms of assistance the United States gives to other countries. Foreign aid is used to support American national security and commercial interests and can also be distributed for humanitarian reasons.[3] Aid is financed from US taxpayers and other revenue sources that Congress appropriates annually through the United States budget process. It is dispersed through "over 20 U.S. government agencies that manage foreign assistance programs,"[4] although about half of all economic assistance is channeled through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The primary recipients of American foreign aid are developing countries, countries of strategic importance to the United States, and countries recovering from war. While the United States has given aid to other countries since 1812, government-sponsored foreign aid was expanded during World War II, with the current aid system implemented in 1961.[5] The largest aid programs of the post-war period were the Marshall Plan of 1948 and the Mutual Security Act of 1951-1961.


Quantitatively, the United States spends the most on foreign aid of any country; however, as a percent of GDP, American foreign aid spending ranks near the bottom compared to other developed countries.[5] Foreign aid typically receives bipartisan support in Congress[6] as it is seen to promote global economic development and in turn, American national security.[5] However, foreign aid remains unpopular with the American public,[7] possibly due to overestimations of the scale of aid spending by the federal government.[8]

Compact of Free Association

Criticism of United States foreign policy

Development Assistance Database

Feed the Future Initiative

Foreign Assistance Act

Foreign policy of the United States

Millennium Challenge Corporation

United States Foreign Military Financing

United States military aid

USAID

Canadian International Development Agency

General:

U.S. Foreign Assistance dashboard

Brief Chronology and Highlights of the History of U.S. Foreign Assistance Activities

from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives

Criticism of U.S. Foreign Aid

Foreign Aid Explorer

U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants: Obligations and Loan Authorizations, July 1, 1945 – September 30, 2013

ForeignAssistance.gov

USG sources of data on United States aid are:


Non-USG sources of data on United States aid are: