US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration is working to identify and exempt certain USAID programs from sweeping stop-work orders as part of President Donald Trump’s wider freezing of foreign aid.

The move comes after the administration placed all direct employees in USAID employees globally on leave and remembered thousands of overseas staff under Trump’s Directive last month to stop most US foreign assistance in accordance with his “America First” policy.

Trump and his helpers have stated that they are aiming to ensure that billions of dollars in US help, including humanitarian aid distributed worldwide, are in line with his “America First” policy. He got billionaire Elon Musk, who has accused of being a criminal organization without providing evidence with the scaling of the agency.

Since Trump’s freezer on January 20, stop-works have stopped much of the agency’s assistance all over the world, which has led to hundreds of contractors being dismissed. Monday’s message, however, brought some exceptions including “specially designated programs.”

“This language is deliberate because we now have to work … to identify which programs should be specifically designated and therefore exempt from this order,” Rubio said during a press conference in Guatemala City.

The criteria for exceptions depend on whether a program promotes US national interests and adapts to them. “And those who don’t do it won’t go on,” Rubio added.

He repeated his accusation that USAID staff did not cooperate with the administration’s efforts to collect more information about the programs. However, he noted that staff in the state department working with similar programs provided insight into the administration.

“At the state department … we got a really good insight, which is why every single day we issue exceptions to the Ministry of State,” Rubio said. He did not give details of what these exceptions brought.

Assistance to emergency situations was not included in the broad freezing of foreign aid. On January 28, Rubio issued an extra exception for life -saving assistance and outlined criteria for what would qualify.

However, the lack of details in Trump’s order and the subsequent exceptions have left help groups confused whether their work can continue.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the United States had stopped purchases for foreign food assistance programs despite an exception for food help.

The freezing of the purchase of wheat, soybeans and other raw materials produced by US farmers could prevent or stop the operation of organizations that provide millions of tonnes of food annually to help relieve poverty in countries such as Madagascar, Tanzania and Honduras, sources say.