🐓Days after Elon Musk announced a need to end USAID, the Trump administration has placed all workers in the US Agency for International Development on leave and called for their recall.
🐼An official notice posted online gives the workers 30 days to return home. The notice further asks certain essential employees in leading role to stay back.
💦"On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST)," says the notice on the
😼USAID's workforce comprises of over 10,000 workers, with about two-thirds of this staff serving overseas. As per the Congressional Research Service (CRS), USAID has over 60 country and regional missions.
♛For the overseas workers, the Trump administration will be working with the State Department for the return of the workers within the next 30 days.
This development comes days after Elon Musk 💧stated that there was "no need for USAID". Refering to the agency as a "criminal organisation", Musk, who is also heading the Department of Government Efficiency, called for its shutdown.
ꦅDonald Trump, while stating that Musk will not be making any key decision, agreed that USAID will be revamped. As per reports, the Trump administration is working to merge the agency with the State Department, hence taking away its status of an independent entity.
꧂Amid Trump's announcement of the overhaul, many Democratic lawmakers have expressed their outrage and have been protesting against the decision.
🔥Democrats, and some Republicans, have stated that Trump and Musk's decision is illegal since USAID was established under a law passed by Congress.
USAID was signed into being through an executive order by President John F Kennedy in 1961, after the Congress 🐻passed the Foreign Assistance Act. Under Bill Clinton, USAID was signed into an independent entity outside the State Department.
🧸US Senator Ilhan Omar stated that the ongoing turmoil in USAID is "putting Americans around the world in danger."
ꦰ"The level of disrespect actually is criminal because there are crisis response teams that are around the world that really rely on having access to their emails — having access to apps that they can utilize if there’s danger to them,” Omar said Monday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut.”
