The Trump administration presented a plan Thursday to dramatically cut staffing worldwide for US aid projects as part of its dismantling of the 🦋US Agenc𒀰y for International Development, leaving fewer than 300 workers out of thousands.
Trump's USAID overhaul slashes staff from 10,000 to 300, risking global aid as critics warn mass layoffs will disrupt life-saving programs worldwide
The Trump administration presented a plan Thursday to dramatically cut staffing worldwide for US aid projects as part of its dismantling of the 🦋US Agenc𒀰y for International Development, leaving fewer than 300 workers out of thousands.
Late Thꦚursday, federal workers associations filed suit asking a federal court to stop the shutdown, argui❀ng that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to shut down an agency enshrined in congressional legislation.
Two current USAID employees and one former senior USAID official told The Associated Press of the administration's plan, presented to remaining senior officials of theไ agency Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to a Trump administration order barring USAID staffers from talking to anyone outside their agency.
The plan would leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of what are currently 8,000 direct hires and c🌌ontractors. They, along with an unknown number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run the few life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to keep going for the time being.
It was no🦩t immediately clear whether the reduction to 300 would be permanent or temporary, potentially allowing more workers to return after what the Trump administration says is a review of which aid and development programs it wants to resume.
The administration earlier this week gave almost all USAID staffers posted overseas 30 days, starting Friday, to return to the US, with the government paying for their travel and moving costs. Workers who choose to stay longer, unless they received a specific hardship waiver, might have to cover their own expenses, a notiꩲce on the USAID website said late Thursday.
Secretary 𓄧of State Marco Rubio✨ said during a trip to the Dominican Republic on Thursday that the US government will continue providing foreign aid.
"But ಌit is goin𝐆g to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest," he told reporters.
The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who is running a budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have targeted USAID hardest so far in an unprecedented challenge of the federal govern🎶ment and many of its programs.
Since Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, a sweeping funding freeze has shut down most of the agency's programs worldwide, and almost all of its workers h⛎ave been placed on administrative leave or furloughed. Musk and Trump have spoken of eliminati♋ng USAID as an independent agency and moving surviving programs under the State Department.
Democratic law♏makers and others call the movꦓe illegal without congressional approval.
The same argument was made by the Ameri🅰can Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees in their lawsuit, which asks the federal court in Washington to compel the reopening of USAID's buildings, return its staffers to work a꧟nd restore funding.
Government officials "failed to acknowledge the catastrophic consequences of their actions, both as they pertain to American workers, the lives of millions around the world,ﷺ and to US national interests," the suit says.