By Andrew Restuccia and Jessica Donati 

WASHINGTON -- President Trump has decided not to move ahead with a plan to cut about $4 billion in foreign-aid funding after coming under criticism from lawmakers in both parties, according to administration officials.

White House officials had previously said they expected to release the proposal this week, but Mr. Trump backed away from the effort after hearing from lawmakers and opponents within his administration, the officials said.

Instead, the administration plans to attempt to redirect some of the funds to other priorities, including projects favored by Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and senior adviser, and Vice President Mike Pence.

"The president has been clear that there is waste and abuse in our foreign assistance and we need to be wise about where U.S. money is going, which is why he asked his administration to look into options to do just that," a senior administration official said.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget had initially proposed to cut a total of $4.3 billion in funding for State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development programs, including humanitarian, human-rights and United Nations initiatives.

But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, along with influential Republican lawmakers, argued against the cuts, officials said. In a series of private discussions in recent days, Mr. Pompeo countered that the money could be redirected to programs that better align with the administration's priorities, a senior administration official said.

Mr. Trump ultimately decided in favor of that option, as it avoided an unnecessary confrontation with Congress, the official said. Instead of cutting the funding altogether, the administration intends to try to reprogram the funds. Two administration officials said Mr. Trump endorsed a proposal to shift funding away from programs in Guatemala, Honduras, Pakistan and the West Bank. A relatively small amount of funding for those countries would continue to support life-saving programs, one of the administration officials said.

The administration will attempt to move the rest of the money to priority programs such as a women's global development initiative backed by Ms. Trump and an effort backed by Mr. Pence to protect Christians and religious minorities in the Middle East, the other official said.

The Trump administration's effort to freeze the funds had threatened to confound the already delicate process to avoid a government shutdown this fall.

Although Congress and the administration have already agreed to new spending levels, they must still reach a series of deals on funding levels for individual agencies and programs -- including contentious propositions such as funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border -- before Oct. 1.

A clash between the legislative and executive branches on a comparatively small amount of foreign-aid funding could have delayed and distracted from that task, increasing the possibility of a government shutdown.

The abandonment of the foreign-aid cuts is another defeat for critics of certain spending programs in the administration and on Capitol Hill. The deal last month to raise overall spending levels and lift the debt ceiling for two years passed Congress over the objection of many Republicans who criticized certain spending programs.

The administration's spending critics, led by acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, had pushed for the cuts behind the scenes.

Typically, White House efforts to cut funds require congressional approval after a 45-day freeze on the money. But because the end of the federal fiscal year arrives on Sept. 30, the money would expire before the end of 45 days -- effectively enabling the White House to cancel the aid funding unilaterally. Democrats had argued that the move could be illegal.

The proposed maneuver drew bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill, where both close Republican allies of Mr. Trump, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) warned the proposed maneuver could poison the well ahead of future spending talks. Mrs. Pelosi spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about the proposed cuts.

--Andrew Duehren contributed to this article.

Write to Andrew Restuccia at Andrew.Restuccia@wsj.com and Jessica Donati at jessica.donati@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 22, 2019 18:30 ET (22:30 GMT)