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Trump to Slash Most USAID Job 02/07 07:15
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration presented a plan Thursday to
dramatically cut staffing worldwide for U.S. aid projects as part of its
dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, leaving fewer
than 300 workers out of thousands.
Late Thursday, federal workers associations filed suit asking a federal
court to stop the shutdown, arguing that President Donald Trump lacks the
authority to shut down an agency enshrined in congressional legislation.
Two current USAID employees and one former senior USAID official told The
Associated Press of the administration's plan, presented to remaining senior
officials of the agency Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to a
Trump administration order barring USAID staffers from talking to anyone
outside their agency.
The plan would leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of what are
currently 8,000 direct hires and contractors. They, along with an unknown
number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run the few
life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to keep going for
the time being.
It was not immediately clear whether the reduction to 300 would be permanent
or temporary, potentially allowing more workers to return after what the Trump
administration says is a review of which aid and development programs it wants
to resume.
The administration earlier this week gave almost all USAID staffers posted
overseas 30 days, starting Friday, to return to the U.S., with the government
paying for their travel and moving costs. Workers who choose to stay longer,
unless they received a specific hardship waiver, might have to cover their own
expenses, a notice on the USAID website said late Thursday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a trip to the Dominican Republic
on Thursday that the U.S. government will continue providing foreign aid.
"But it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our
national interest," he told reporters.
The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who is running a
budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have targeted USAID hardest
so far in an unprecedented challenge of the federal government and many of its
programs.
Since Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, a sweeping funding freeze has shut down
most of the agency's programs worldwide, and almost all of its workers have
been placed on administrative leave or furloughed. Musk and Trump have spoken
of eliminating USAID as an independent agency and moving surviving programs
under the State Department.
Democratic lawmakers and others call the move illegal without congressional
approval.
The same argument was made by the American Foreign Service Association and
the American Federation of Government Employees in their lawsuit, which asks
the federal court in Washington to compel the reopening of USAID's buildings,
return its staffers to work and restore funding.
Government officials "failed to acknowledge the catastrophic consequences of
their actions, both as they pertain to American workers, the lives of millions
around the world, and to US national interests," the suit says.
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