Trump -Administration to dismiss almost all USAID — staff

The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of workers on the US Agency for International Development from more than 10,000 to approx. 290 positions, said three people with knowledge of the plans on Thursday.

The small remaining staff includes employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance, the people said and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the cuts.

A spokeswoman for the state department, if the umbrella remains of the agency have moved under, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Employees in USAID are pushing for less serious cuts, and they submitted significantly longer lists to the state staff they considered significant to perform life -saving and other critical programs, according to two people with knowledge of their efforts.

USID -officials were also told on Thursday that about 800 awards and contracts administered through the agency were canceled, the three people said.

The relocations also came only a day before almost all of the agency’s direct employment, including its list of foreign services, will be set in indefinite administrative leave. In addition, almost all contractors will see their work orders terminated. Foreign Service Manager has 30 days to return to the United States.

State Secretary Marco Rubio, who took control of USAID as acting administrator on Monday, insisted during a Fox News interview this week that the acquisition was “not about getting rid of foreign assistance.”

“But now we have rank nubordination,” he said, adding that USAID employees had been “completely cooperative, so we had no choice other than taking dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.”

On Thursday, he repeated the promise that some workers would be offered exceptions to minimize the difficulties of the sudden recall. The promise was made first in a message that was posted on the USAID site on Tuesday night, which announced that employees across the globe would be put on administrative leave or drop by Friday.

“We’re not trying to be disturbing to people’s personal lives,” Mr. Rubio to journalists while traveling in the Dominican Republic. “We are not punishing here. But this is the only way we have been able to get cooperation from USAID ”

Two unions representing USAID -on Thursday brought a lawsuit on cuts against President Trump, Mr. Rubio and Finance Minister Scott Bessent together with the Agency, Ministry of State and the Ministry of Finance. In the case, the reduction in staff and cancellation of global aid contracts is constitutional and violates power separation.

“What we see is an illegal seizure of this agency of the Trump administration in a general violation of basic constitutional principles,” said Robin Thurston, the Legal Director of Democracy, one of two advocacy organizations filing the trial on behalf of The American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government -Employees, adding that the administration had “generated a global humanitarian crisis.”

The case is looking for an injunction to stop firing and furging of employees and dismantling of the agency. It claims that USAID cannot be settled without prior approval of the congress, which adopted legislation supporting the agency and continues to finance it as a unique entity.

USAD officials have aligned with a drastic reduction in their ranks since contractors began to be released last week, just days after the Trump administration announced a sweeping stop work order for foreign aid.

The order was later changed to say that the agency’s life -saving activities could continue. However, several USAID officials and contractors have reported that they cannot access funding for projects that received exception.

Employees’ fears were increased Monday after Mr. Rubio announced that he had become the acting administrator of the agency and delegated his daily governance to Pete Marocco, the department’s director of foreign assistance. That day Erica Y. Carr, the functioning performing secretary, also told agency executives in an e -mail to come up with the “Leanest Essential Personal -Numbers” they need “only to provide important services”, according to a Copy seen by the new York Times.

In the days ago, almost all other USAID -the United States in the United States were either terminated or put on administrative leave, while the agency’s global workforce was asked to expect to be put on a similar status at the end of the day Friday.

The loss of almost the entire USAID work force threatened to have serious consequences for a huge cut of programs driven by the agency, which for years has led the government’s humanitarian aid and global development efforts as well as the larger global aid industry that depends on USAD financing.

While the exact size of the USAID work strength could not be determined exactly, estimates vary as high as 14,000, a number that includes all contractors and foreign nationals working with agency missions.

“Rubio claims that @usaid life -saving help with health and humanitarian needs will continue,” said Atul Gawande, who served as assistant administrator of the Bureau of Global Health under the Biden administration, in a social media post on Thursday. “But his team just communicated that the entire agency will be reduced immediately from 14,000 to only 294 people. Just 12 in Africa. “

Mr. Gawande’s post included a screenshot of an E email from Joel Borert, the acting staff manager who broke down the expected staff per. Bureau after the cuts. The e -mail showed that the administration was planning to keep 12 people focusing on Africa, eight focused on Latin America and the Caribbean, 21 on the Middle East and eight in Asia.

According to this chart, 78 people from the Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs and 77 from the Bureau of Global Health would also be preserved.

The relocations have also affected the state department. On Monday, the department issued a stop-work order to companies employing about 60 contractors in Washington, who work with democracy and human rights issues and focuses on authoritarian states.

Michael Crowley Contributed reporting from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Stephanie Nolen from Halifax, Nova Scotia and Edward Wong From Bangkok.