Employee by employee, project by project, the U.S. Agency for International Development is inching closer and closer to extinction in all but name.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 28 announced a massive reorganization of USAID to drastically reduce the scope of its functions and absorb its remaining operations into his department, while the White House said it will terminate most of the 900 remaining employees from a staff that stood at 10,000 when Donald Trump took office. The administration also released a list of more than 5,000 foreign aid programs already eliminated.
Rubio defended the continued dismantling of USAID by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency as an effort to make foreign aid conform to national interests such as border security and improving relationships with key allies.
Marco Rubio (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens,” the former senator from Florida said. “We are continuing essential lifesaving programs and making strategic investments that strengthen our partners and our own country.”
The State Department and USAID have notified Congress the reorganization should be completed by July 1 with the intention being to jettison “remaining USAID functions that do not align with administration priorities,” Rubio said.
Once completed, what’s left of USAID will consist of about 15 positions, The New York Times reported: “An email to USAID employees informing them of the impending layoffs, titled ‘USAID’s Final Mission’ and sent just after noon (March 28), detailed an elimination in all but name that the administration had long signaled was coming.”
The email was sent by Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE official named as one of two deputy administrators of the international aid agency. The reductions in force will be completed by either July 1 or Sept. 2, the email added.
Jeremy Lewin
“The cuts are in keeping with the administration’s plan to use foreign aid as a tool to further its diplomatic priorities,” according to the Times. “This month, recipients of USAID funds were asked to justify their value to the administration through questionnaires that asked, among other things, whether their programs helped to limit illegal immigration or secure rare earth minerals,” according to the Times.
The Trump administration recently shared information with Congress documenting 5,341 canceled USAID programs along with 898 still in use, according to Devex, an independent news organization focused on issues and trends in global development: “The documents reveal the administration has terminated 86% of programs from the U.S. Agency for International Development — marginally more than the 83% reported on March 10 by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”
Of the $75.9 billion in terminated programs, $48.2 billion already was assigned to recipients but not necessarily paid, leaving $27.7 billion in terminated projects not yet obligated, Devex reported.
Despite Rubio’s assertion that “essential lifesaving programs” would be retained, the administration terminated a $2.6 billion contract with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which distributes vaccines in poor countries. However, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria learned it will retain its $13.4 billion grant running through 2027.
In a letter to Congress, a USAID official said the programs being retained focus on strategic life-saving aid, including global health, food assistance and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Devex reported.
Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 26 demanded the administration explain its rationale in keeping and cutting aid programs.
“It’s disturbing that three months into the Trump administration’s chaotic approach to foreign assistance, we have yet to receive clear answers to the most basic questions,” the lawmakers said. “We expect and demand more information about this ‘review.’ The sweeping terminations of U.S. foreign assistance have been done in violation of U.S. law.”
But a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Musk and his DOGE team can continue the shutdown of USAID.
The March 28 judgment overturns a lower court decision halting the process because Musk and DOGE “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways” and caused harm to the employee plaintiffs and the nation.
The appellate court disagreed: “While defendants’ role and actions related to USAID are not conventional, unconventional does not necessarily equal unconstitutional.”
“These award terminations threaten food security, health care and essential services in crisis-affected countries.”
World Relief lamented the cuts place at-risk populations around the world at greater risk.
“These award terminations threaten food security, health care and essential services in crisis-affected countries, exacerbating suffering in regions already facing extreme hardship,” the Christian humanitarian organization said.
Closely related are the State Department’s denial of contracted funds for refugee resettlement groups like World Vision.
“As followers of Jesus, we are called to serve ‘the least of these,’ and cutting off life-saving assistance to vulnerable communities is an abdication of that responsibility. The church has long played a role in alleviating suffering, but we cannot do it alone. Our government must uphold its commitment to protecting human dignity and aiding those in greatest need,” World Relief President Myal Greene said.
Oxfam America President Abby Maxman said the elimination of USAID and the discontinuation of its long-term emergency assistance programs will be devastating.
“We have already witnessed the life-threatening, wide-ranging impacts of a temporary disruption to U.S. foreign assistance. This action would expand those disruptions exponentially by punishing the people who are already suffering the most, undermining U.S. credibility and interests, and halting decades of progress toward a safer, more equal world,” she said.
Related articles:
White House misjudged support for USAID, Sojourners leader says
Why foreign aid is in American interests and reflects our values | Opinion by Knox Thames
America has walked away from the battle for international goodwill | Opinion by Heather Deal