The U.S. government may be shut down but it's still doling out large sums of taxpayer dollars to foreign causes that American citizens may not consider a priority. In the last few days alone, Uncle Sam dedicated millions of dollars in grants to projects that include helping socially vulnerable youth in crime-ridden Costa Rican communities, tackling an AIDS epidemic in Mozambique, improving health in Nigeria and surveilling "important diseases in Senegal."
There are plenty more with details posted this month on the government's grant website which says that, during a lapse in federal appropriations, the system will "remain in an operational status."