Thousands of American agencies for international development workers who have been dismissed or placed on leave in the context of the dismantling by the Trump administration of the agency received a window of 15 minutes before the end of this week to eliminate their workspaces.
USAID workers arrived early Thursday in a strongly covered sky for what probably seems to be their last visit to the headquarters of Washington, now closed from the six -decades’ help agency. A small and dark group of supporters welcomed them.
While the largest offices of the agency urged supporters to present themselves to the staff members of “snapping” over the next two days, a ban on the Trump administration on the staff of the USAID speaking publicly also has many reproduction if they speak publicly.
USAID has placed 4,080 staff members working around the world on leave on Monday. This was joined by a “reduction of force” which will affect 1,600 employees, said a spokesperson for the State Department in a response sent by email to the questions to the Associated Press.
The administration previously gave USAID staff abroad, many of whom have children at school to foreign countries, only 30 days to be able to return to the United States and have their expenses paid by the government.
USAID has been one of the largest targets to date from a large campaign by US President Donald Trump and the Government Ministry (DOGE), under the auspices of billionaire Trump, Elon Musk, to reduce the size of the federal government.
In addition to the scope of the cuts, their efforts are extraordinary because it did not involve the congress, which authorized the agency and provided its funding. DOGE is a working group and not an official department, and several of their team members had access to sensitive data and payment systems, although they have never obtained security authorizations.
Eliminate up to $ 60 billion in aid
Anyone on Thursday left a bucket of flowers outside the building so that workers are on the commemorative wall inside the 99 USAID workers killed in the exercise of their functions.
An opinion on the agency’s website has set up instructions when specific groups of employees should arrive to be projected by safety and escorted to their old workspaces. Those who are released must turn in all the assets issued by the USAID.
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The frost free funding of the Trump administration has created chaos in global humanitarian work, including efforts to combat diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. New York Times’s World Health Journalist Stephanie Nolen establishes immediate and long -term impacts on people whose health depended on this aid.
Administration efforts to reduce the federal government are involved in various prosecution, but judicial disputes to temporarily stop the closure of the USAID have failed.
However, a federal judge gave Trump administration on Trump administration this week to release billions of dollars in American foreign aid, saying that it had not given any signs of compliance with its legal order for almost two weeks to facilitate the freeze.
On Wednesday evening, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked this order, the chief judge John Roberts affirming that he will remain unanswered until the high court has the opportunity to weigh more fully.
The Trump administration said that it eliminated more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and 60 billion US dollars of global aid in the world, putting a number on its plans to eliminate the majority of American development and humanitarian aid abroad. The Trump administration described its plans both in an internal note obtained by the Associated Press and the documents in one of these federal proceedings on Wednesday.
USAID programs largely successful to contain Ebola epidemics and other threats and save more than 20 million lives in Africa thanks to HIV and AIDS treatment are among those who are still cut off from agency funds, according to USAID officials and managers of partner organizations.
Relatively calm republicans on the “chainsaw” approach
Virginia Democrat representative Gerald Connolly said in a statement that the attack on USAID employees was “unjustified and unprecedented”. Connolly, whose district includes an important federal workforce, described workers from the aid agency part of the “first development and Foreign Agency in the world” that saves “millions of lives each year”.
Trump and Musk quickly pushed to close the foreign help agency, calling on its offline programs with the agenda of the Republican President and saying without evidence that his work is a waste. Many canceled contracts will not produce any savingsIt was noted, while Musk’s transparency statements were denied by information disappearing from the DOGE site.
During the year 2023, the most recent data available, 68 billion US dollars had been forced to foreign to the United States to programs ranging from disaster to health and Promecracy initiatives in 204 countries and regions. USAID was responsible for around 62% of the total, the State Department, at 28%.
According to PEW research data analysis in recent years, foreign aid since 2001 has varied between 0.7% and 1.4% of total public spending, the rate from 2023 to 1.2%.
Musk’s apparent conflicts of apparent interests leading to several companies subject to government regulations have been neglected by the administration. Musk individually or with his businesses has faced requests for information on alleged securities violations of securities, questions on the security of Tesla automatic pilot systems and self-clarifications (FSD), potential animal welfare violations in the experiences of the cerebral flea of Neuralink and alleged practices of discrimination of hiring in Spacex.
A report by the Congressional Research Service earlier this month said that the conference authorization was compulsory “to abolish, move or consolidate USAID”, but the republican majority in the House and the Senate failed to deal with the actions of the administration.
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While Trump continues to express his enthusiasm for the work of Musk, especially during a meeting of the cabinet on Wednesday during which several politically appointed leaders were silently among the billionaire, some republican legislators faced angry voters during the meetings of the City Hall in recent days on DOGE activities which have seemed discreet and precipitated.
“They were blind and brought a chainsaw to these things,” said a participant in the event in Roswell, Georgia.
The participant in a meeting held by the Republican representative Rich McCormick noted that the government had pulled and rushed to rehthe workers responsible for the safety of nuclear weapons and efforts to combat the bird flu. “The conservative approach is to take this slowly and methodically to make sure you do it correctly, and that does not happen.”
