JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP – Most employees at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were placed on leave or fired by midnight on 23 February, the aid agency said, as President Donald Trump’s administration moved ahead in slashing government spending.
Around 1,600 workers based in the United States were laid off in a “reduction-in-force” effort, according to a notice on the US Agency for International Development’s website.
All other staff directly hired by USAID were placed on administrative leave globally, except those responsible for “mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs.” The move was a step forward in Trump’s effort to dismantle USAID, which had more than 10,000 employees and operated an array of humanitarian and development programs around the world.
The agency had announced earlier in the month that all staff would be placed on administrative leave—a directive that faced legal challenges. But on 22 February, a federal judge lifted an order that had paused the Trump administration’s implementation of plans to gut USAID.
In its statement on 23 February, the agency said that remaining staff expected to continue working would be informed by management by 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) that day. USAID added that it would fund return travel expenses for staff based overseas.
“In the coming week, we will provide details on how to retrieve personal items from the former USAID workspaces and return government-issued devices,” it said.
Trump and his allies—including billionaire donor Elon Musk—alleged that USAID was rife with “fraud,” but provided little proof of the accusations. Its budget of more than USD 40 billion was mandated by Congress, with its programs ranging from governance to life-saving food assistance.
The decades-old agency had, over the years, faced criticism in the aid sector for its overhead costs and questions on whether some of its programs achieved their objectives. USAID had, however, also been a key US tool of global “soft power”—the ability of a country to persuade others through its attractiveness.
© Agence France-Presse