USAID workers pack belongings, as Trump administration plans to cut 90% of foreign aid contracts

Thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development workers who have been fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency were being given a 15-minute window before the end of this week to clear out their workspaces.

USAID workers arrived early Thursday under heavily overcast skies for what appears likely to be their final visit to the now-closed Washington headquarters of the six-decade-old aid agency. A small and sombre group of supporters greeted them.

While larger bureaus at the agency are urging supporters to turn up to “clap out” staffers over the next two days, a Trump administration ban on USAID staffers speaking publicly also has many fearing retaliation if they speak publicly.

USAID placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave Monday. That was joined by a “reduction in force” that will affect another 1,600 employees, a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed response to questions to The Associated Press.

The administration previously gave overseas USAID staff, many who have children in school in foreign countries, just 30 days to be able to move back to the U.S. and have their expenses paid for by the government.

USAID has been one of the biggest targets so far of a broad campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under the auspices of billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, to slash the size of the federal government. 

In addition to the scope of the cuts, their effort is extraordinary because it has not involved Congress, which authorized the agency and has provided its funding. DOGE is a task force and not an official department, and several of its team members have had access to sensitive data and payment systems, despite never having obtained security clearances.

Eliminating up to $60B in assistance

On Thursday, someone had left a bucket of flowers outside the building for workers to place at the memorial wall inside to the 99 USAID workers killed in the line of duty.

A notice on the agency’s website laid out instructions for when specific groups of employees should arrive to be screened by security and escorted to their former workspaces. Those being let go must turn in all USAID-issued assets.

The administration’s efforts to slash the federal government are embroiled in various lawsuits, but court challenges to temporarily halt the shutdown of USAID have been unsuccessful.

However, a federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration a deadline of this week to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, saying it had given no sign of complying with his nearly two-week-old court order to ease the funding freeze.

Late Wednesday, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked that order, however, with Chief Justice John Roberts saying it will remain on hold until the high court has a chance to weigh in more fully.

The Trump administration has said it is eliminating more than 90 per cent of the USAID foreign aid contracts and $60 billion US in overall assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad. The Trump administration outlined its plans in both an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press and filings in one of those federal lawsuits Wednesday.

Widely successful USAID programs credited with containing outbreaks of Ebola and other threats and saving more than 20 million lives in Africa through HIV and AIDS treatment are among those still cut off from agency funds, USAID officials and officials with partner organizations say.

Republicans relatively quiet on ‘chainsaw’ approach

Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly said in a statement that the attack on USAID employees was “unwarranted and unprecedented.” Connolly, whose district includes a sizable federal workforce, called the aid agency workers part of the “world’s premier development and foreign assistance agency” who save “millions of lives every year.”

Trump and Musk have moved swiftly to shutter the foreign aid agency, calling its programs out of line with the Republican president’s agenda and asserting without evidence that its work is wasteful. Many of the contracts cancelled will produce no savings, it has been found, while Musk’s claims of transparency have been belied by information disappearing from the DOGE site.

In fiscal year 2023, the most recent data available, $68 billion US had been obligated in U.S. foreign aid to programs ranging from disaster relief to health and pro-democracy initiatives in 204 countries and regions. USAID was responsible for about 62 per cent of the total, with the State Department next at 28 per cent.

According to Pew Research analysis of data in recent years, foreign aid since 2001 has ranged between 0.7 per cent and 1.4 per cent of total government spending, with the 2023 rate at 1.2 per cent.

Musk’s apparent conflicts of interest leading several companies subject to government regulation have been overlooked by the administration. Musk individually or with his companies has faced inquiries into alleged securities violations, questions over the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems, potential animal welfare violations in Neuralink’s brain-chip experiments and alleged hiring discrimination practices at SpaceX.

A report from the Congressional Research Service earlier this month said congressional authorization is required “to abolish, move or consolidate USAID,” but the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate have made no serious pushback against the administration’s actions.

While Trump continues to express enthusiasm for Musk’s work, including at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday in which several politically appointed leaders sat silently as the billionaire spoke, some Republican lawmakers have faced angry constituents at town hall meetings in recent days over DOGE activities that have appeared indiscriminate and rushed.

“They’ve been indiscriminate and they’ve taken a chainsaw to these things,” one attendee at the event in Roswell, Ga., said.

The attendee at a meeting held by Republican Rep. Rich McCormick noted the government had fired and then scrambled to rehire workers responsible for nuclear weapons security and efforts to combat bird flu. “The conservative approach is to take this in a slow and methodical way so you make sure you do it right, and that’s not happening.”