USDA workers pack items as Trump administration plans to cut 90% of foreign aid contracts

As part of the Trump administration’s demolition of the agency, thousands of U.S. international development workers’ agencies have been fired or furloughed, and will provide a 15-minute window to clear the workspace before the end of this week.

U.S. Agency for International Development workers arrived earlier Thursday under cloudy skies, which appeared to be their final visit to the Washington headquarters of the now-6-year-old aid agency. A small, gloomy supporter greeted them.

While the agency’s larger picture is urging supporters to start “applauding” staff within the next two days, the Trump administration has banned staff members from U.S. international developers from speaking publicly, and many people are worried about retaliation if they speak publicly.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) serves 4,080 employees during Monday’s leave. A State Department spokesman said in an email response to the Associated Press questions that the “reduction of force” was added, which would affect another 1,600 employees.

The government has previously sent overseas staff from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), many with children abroad, and only 30 days can they move back to the United States and pay the fees by the government.

Under the auspices of billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, the U.S. International Development has been one of the biggest goals of a broad campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut the size of the federal government.

Apart from the scope of the cuts, their efforts are extraordinary because it does not involve Congress, which authorized the agency to provide funding. Doge is a task force, not an official department, and although it has never been secured, several of its team members still have access to sensitive data and payment systems.

Eliminate aid up to $60B

On Thursday, someone left a bucket of flowers outside the building so that workers could place the internal memorial walls on 99 workers who died in their duties in the United States Agency for International Development.

The notifications on the agency’s website list instructions on when a particular employee should be safely screened and escorted to their previous workspace. Those who have been liberalized must submit all assets issued by the United States Agency for International Development.

The government’s efforts to cut federal government are involved in various lawsuits, but the challenge of the court temporarily halting the closure of the United States Agency for International Development has not been successful.

But a federal judge gave the Trump administration a deadline for the week on Tuesday to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid and said it didn’t meet his nearly two-week court order to mitigate the funding freeze.

However, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the order late Wednesday, with Chief Justice John Roberts saying it would be put on hold until the High Court has the opportunity to weigh more fully.

The Trump administration said it is eliminating more than 90% of U.S. International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in total U.S. assistance provided globally, providing a number of programs to eliminate most U.S. development and humanitarian assistance abroad. The Trump administration obtained an internal memorandum of one of the federal lawsuits and an internal memorandum of filing documents in one of the federal lawsuits Wednesday.

U.S. Agency for International Development officials and partners said that U.S. Agency for International Development programs that saved more than 20 million lives through HIV and AIDS treatment remain isolated from agency funds, said officials from the United States Agency for International Development and Partners.

Republicans are relatively quiet on the “chainsaw” approach

Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Democratic Virginia, said in a statement that the attack on U.S. Agency employees was “inaction and unprecedented.” The region of Connolly includes a considerable federal workforce, calling aid agency workers part of the world’s premier development and foreign aid agencies, who save “millions of lives” each year.

Trump and Musk have quickly shut down foreign aid agencies, imbalanced their plans with the Republican president’s agenda and argued that there is no evidence that their work is wasted. It has been found that many cancelled contracts will not save, and Musk’s claim to transparency is masked by information that disappears from the Governor’s field.

In fiscal 2023, the latest data is that the US $68 billion obligation to foreign aid involves 204 countries and regions of disease relief to health and support democratic initiatives programs. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is responsible for 62% of the total, and the State Department will next be 28%.

According to a Pew research analysis, foreign aid since 2001 has been between 0.7% and 1.4% of total government spending, with a ratio of 1.2% in 2023.

Musk’s obvious conflict of interest led several companies under government regulations to be ignored by the government. Musk faces investigations of so-called securities violations alone or with his company, alone, issues with the safety of Tesla’s autopilot and fully autonomous driving (FSD) systems, potential animal welfare violations in Neuralink’s brain-chip experiments and animal welfare allegedly hiring discriminatory practices on SpaceX.

A report by the Congressional Research Bureau earlier this month said the Congressional mandate was to “repeal, move or consolidate the U.S. Agency for International Development” requirement, but Republican majority in the House and Senate did not push the government’s actions.

While Trump continues to be passionate about Musk’s work, including at a cabinet meeting Wednesday where several politically appointed leaders sat silently as the billionaire spoke, some Republican lawmakers faced angry voters at a city hall meeting at Doge events in recent days.

“They were a little bit chaotic and had a chainsaw for these things,” said a participant in Roswell, Georgia.

Participants at a meeting held by Republican Rep. Rich McCormick noted that the government has fired and then scrambled to re-hire efforts to take charge of nuclear weapons security and fight bird flu. “The conservative approach is to take this approach in a slow and methodical way so that you make sure you do it right and that doesn’t happen.”