The Department of State of the U.S. Agency for International Development Recalls: What Happened, Where Are We Going, and How Do We Go About It?
The State Department has started the process to withdraw all United States Agency for International Development personnel stationed overseas by this weekend, according to three sources with knowledge of internal planning.
Many of the employees of the United States Agency for International Development have been put on leave, restricted access to their workspace and ordered to stop all work. Hundreds of independent contractors have been laid off or furloughed. Guidance to employees has not been consistent, leading to fear and chaos.
I am aware of the feasibility concerns and the emotional toll that will take on those impacted and the team assisting. We’ve been asked to staff a 24/7 Coordination Support Team in the Ops Center’s Taskforce space beginning immediately.”
The plan to recall overseas staff was described to NPR by current and former federal government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly.
On late Monday night, a memo went out to State Department employees asking that overseas missions provide the number of USAID employees and dependent family members at their locations.
A report by the Congressional Research Service shows that more than two thirds of the 10,000 employees of the agency are currently serving overseas.
Employees would have just days to figure out where to go, how to arrange pet care, take children out of school, and plan for belongings to be sent behind them, because of the sudden recall. Meanwhile, withdrawing over a thousand foreign service officers and their families will likely be extremely costly, multiple diplomatic sources tell NPR.
Many staff at the agency have been locked out of their email and work server in recent days, and they are working on many of the critical public health missions. This demonstrates that the emergency waivers process is not good for vulnerable populations.
The issue has been front and center this week, after President Trump’s pick to lead a new agency called the Department of Government Efficiency announced that he was shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development. His comments came after the Trump administration had already announced a 90-day pause on foreign aid.
President Trump delegated the cost-cutting team called DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, and its leader Elon Musk to review USAID programs and downsize the agency, potentially moving it inside the State Department. The agency, which distributes billions of dollars in humanitarian aid globally, has been accused of corruption by Trump. He gave a list of global outreach programs he disagreed with as illustrations of those claims, without providing concrete evidence of misuse or illegal activity.
WIRED interviewed eight current and former USAID employees and contractors for this story, several of whom directly work on the agency’s HIV and AIDS programs. They were granted anonymity due to fears of retaliation and because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the agency. They didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Musk wrote on the social media site that they spent the weekend feeding the agency into the wood chipper. Is it possible to go to some great parties? Did that instead.”
The impact of the Trump presidency’s decision to freeze USAID has been tempered by a court challenge and the public’s distrust of it
The global health program, which was founded by former US president George W. Bush and is overseen by the State Department, has saved an estimated 26 million lives since its launch in 2003. It’s implemented by a handful of government agencies, including USAID. While in theory the Trump administration’s waiver allows the program to resume some of its activities while the foreign aid freeze is still in effect, in reality, sources tell WIRED that much of its lifesaving work remains paused.
“Your money is being unfrozen but you can’t contact the people who actually froze it,” a senior official at an HIV/AIDS organization told WIRED. Even though efforts are made to free up the work, there is a bigger communication block that is frustrating.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans are facing questions about whether recent actions by the Trump administration are affecting Congress’ power to spend money. And for the second week in a row, most GOP lawmakers have responded to those questions by largely shrugging them off.
Last week, the Office of Management and Budget instructed federal agencies in a memo to stop all grants and payments. The White House has said it will continue with its effort to rein in spending, despite the memo being withdrawn after a court challenge.
“I think the administration has every right to demand accountability and transparency in all these programs,” John Barrasso, the senate’s number two GOP leader, told NPR about Musk’s work to rein in USAID.
Barrasso pointed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments on Monday raising concerns about getting information about USAID’s spending. Rubio later said he would be overseeing the agency and sent a letter to congressional committees saying he was reviewing and reorganizing its operations.
Congress authorized spending for the agency through the annual appropriations process, but many Republicans are now saying that a review of foreign aid programs is warranted.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the Trump administration has “the right to review funding and how the decisions are made”, despite the fact that he insisted that the USAID wasn’t closing down.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-N.C., a Republican Activist and the “High Watermark” for Presidential Law in the Early 2000s
The opening weeks of the new administration have underscored the already sharp divide in Capitol Hill, highlighted by the reaction to Musk and the DOGE initiative. Republicans say that Musk’s work is long overdue for a review of foreign aid, despite Democrats trying to make it sound like a power grab by a billionaire.
“I’m all for a review to make sure taxpayer dollars are going to people that are consistent with our government’s policies, and that’s why I’m all for that,” he said.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the agency was due for a review, especially when it comes to overhead costs. But she was a rare GOP lawmaker who publicly raised questions about how Musk was proceeding.
If there is a reorganization of the Agency then Congress has to be told in 15 days how it will be implemented and detailed explanation of the changes.
Collins said she saw the Rubio letter about reviewing the agency but did not believe it “satisfies the requirements of the law.” Collins did not say what her panel would do in response.
“I am not sure where the authority of that would come from and it’s my understanding that some of Musk’s assistants have requested access to classified information or may have for which they are not cleared,” she said.
John Boozman, a GOP appropriator from Arkansas, thinks we don’t know what he’s doing right now. “We are in the process of finding out what the path forward is,” he told NPR, adding that he expected a briefing on the details of DOGE’s plans.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., did acknowledge that an executive branch move to turn off a federal agency “runs afoul of the Constitution in the strictest sense.” He argued that former President Joe Biden did the same things.
“It’s not uncommon for presidents to stop spending a little bit in certain areas,” Tillis said. “Who should bellyache about that?”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pointed specifically to the Biden administration’s efforts to forgive student loan debt as an example of an administration stepping on Congress’ spending authority. That push, Hawley said, “remains the high watermark for presidential lawlessness vis-à-vis Congress in my lifetime.”
It’s unclear what the White House or Musk will demand in any spending deal. But two weeks into the Trump administration’s shock and awe of executive actions aimed at reshaping the federal government, there’s little sign congressional Republicans will stand in the way of additional efforts to step on their own authority.
Last week the OMB implemented trillions of dollars in federal spending for international and domestic programs that Congress debated and authorized. Few GOP lawmakers publicly objected, even as they admitted constituents in districts across the country called their offices warning about the prospects of losing access to day care programs, Meals on Wheels, school lunch programs and other forms of assistance. The pause also risked funding for projects many Republicans inserted into spending bills for roads, water projects and other community programs in their states and districts.
Republican lawmakers will soon face another chance to put their stamp on federal spending. Unless Congress approves legislation, agencies will run out of money on March 14.
