State Department touts foreign assistance during Hurricane Melissa without USAID

The State Department says that the shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development -- the world's largest agency tasked with administering foreign aid -- did not hamper its efficacy in responding to last month's Category 5 hurricane that pummeled Caribbean nations, including Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas and Haiti. The catastrophic storm marked the first major test for the federal agency now tasked with responding to global disasters . A senior State Department official touted the agency's response to the hurricane as "successful" and pointed to the effectiveness of the Trump administration's new foreign assistance model, with the State Department now handing over authority to regional bureaus to take the lead in disaster response efforts. The agency's response to Hurrica