USAID workers pack belongings, as Trump administration targets 90% of foreign aid contracts
Court challenges to temporarily halt shutdown of USAID have been unsuccessful
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers — many in tears — carted away belongings through cheering crowds in a final visit to their now-closed headquarters on Thursday as the Trump administration's rapid dismantling of the congressionally authorized agency moved into its final stages.
Notices sent out in mass mailings this week are terminating more than 90 per cent of USAID's contracts for humanitarian and development work around the world, and the U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a judge's order requiring the administration to release billions of dollars in foreign aid.
The administration notified most USAID staffers in recent days that they were on leave or being fired, then gave thousands of those who worked in the Washington, D.C., headquarters 15-minute time slots to clear out their desks under the escort of federal officers.
Some staffers wept as they carried out grocery bags and suitcases with what was left from their life's work.
"Heartbreaking," 25-year-old Juliane Alfen said, carrying a small bag with a stuffed rabbit sticking out. Like hundreds of colleagues, Alfen received a form notice on Monday that her firing "was in the best interest of government."
"I felt like we made a difference," Alfen said. "To see everything disappearing before our eyes in a matter of weeks is very scary."
Supporters shouted encouragement and waved signs outside or drove by tapping their car horns. A little girl stood next to her mother holding a handwritten sign saying, "I am proud of you Daddy." A woman who left the building loaded down with bags burst into tears at the cheers greeting her. A small crowd enveloped her in hugs.
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 U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press.
The administration previously gave overseas USAID staff, many of whom 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
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.
Already, organizations reported that thousands of USAID contracts for projects providing life-saving care for millions of people in countries such as Sudan and South Africa received termination notices on Thursday.
And despite an assertion from Musk that funding to fight Ebola outbreaks had been restored, The Associated Press obtained a termination notice for a project by the Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation that was poised to respond to Ebola cases in Uganda.
International AIDS Society president Beatriz Grinsztejn, referring to cuts worldwide, said: "The U.S. funding cuts are dismantling the system. HIV treatment is crumbling. TB services are collapsing."
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.
A federal judge on Tuesday gave the administration a deadline of this week to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid — an order that was temporarily blocked late Wednesday by the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts said that order will remain on hold until the high court has a chance to weigh in more fully.
On Thursday, someone 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.
USAID only 1.2 per cent of government spending
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 provide 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 a 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.
Republicans relatively quiet on 'chainsaw' approach
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 an event in Roswell, Ga., said.
An 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."
With files from CBC News and Reuters