USAID cut dramatically as offices set to close midnight Friday : NPR

Amid global fallout over the blockage in funding and staffing for the United States Agency for International Aid, senior staff submitted a list to State Department leadership of around 600 people whose work around the world they deemed essential and could not be disrupted.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved less than 300 to be excluded from a broad policy putting a large percentage of the workforce of more than 13,000 on administrative leave by Friday at midnight.

That’s according to multiple sources who shared copies of internal emails describing the forthcoming decisions with NPR on the condition of anonymity.

“There is no bottom to this stupidity,” said one USAID staffer who asked to speak anonymously for fear of reprisal from the Trump administration.

“Might as well shut it all down. 290 people won’t be able to do anything,” said a USAID official, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

In the Middle East Bureau, in both Washington D.C. and overseas, only 21 employees will be actively working at the end of the day on Thursday. The Africa Bureau will retain 12 people, 4 in Washington. and 8 in different regional hubs.

The Global Health Bureau, currently staffed at 147 people, and whose strategic priorities are to prevent child and maternal deaths, control the HIV/AIDS epidemic and prevent the spread of infectious diseases, will be reduced to 77 people.

One USAID staffer who provided access to an internal email and commented on the “stupidity” of the disruptions to the agency said that during a virtual staff meeting on Monday, people started leaving one by one as their access was cut off.

“It was like from a horror film,” they said.

It’s unclear how locally hired non-American employees in USAID overseas bureaus will be impacted by the ongoing reduction in the active workforce. The current administrative leave program appeared not to apply to locally employed staff.

However, the same staffers who spoke to NPR about the emails explained that USAID’s foreign service officers are being instructed to focus only on their return home, while grant money is rapidly being eliminated. If local staff are removed, the staffers continued, they could be impacted in their home countries, like Ukrainians who might be conscripted into military service if they are no longer doing relief work with USAID.

Managers condemned the ongoing culling of the agency by the Trump administration in emails to employees on Thursday afternoon.

In a message to the Middle East team, a senior official in the Middle East Bureau wrote that the “risk to safety and security of staff and families, to USG property, to the life-saving programs and activities we implement is unacceptably high.”

“I counsel you to elevate your concerns directly to your Chiefs of Missions to alert them to the risks they are taking on with the manner in which this drawdown is being carried forward,” he continued, calling the reduction in force a “stunning and irresponsible approach to the drawdown”

Democratic members of Congress have said the White House does not have the legal authority to shut down USAID as an agency. However, by removing funding and shrinking active staff to the bare bones, Trump administration could avoid Congressional oversight or an official action by Congress to close the agency.

In response to a request for comment on the USAID closures, a State Department spokesperson who agreed to comment on background to speak generally about the agency said, “The Department of State is fully complying with all Executive Orders and OPM directives to implement the President’s agenda. The Department is working collaboratively with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fully in line with Department protocols.”