USAID workers are packing up their stuff

USAID workers will be given a quarter of an hour to clear out their work areas as the agency comes to an end. For many college students, a quarter of an hour, they believe, is 25 minutes, which also implies how well the Department of Education has been doing lately.

Thousands of USAID workers who have been terminated or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration's getting rid of the agency are being told to clear out their workspaces between Thursday and Friday.

USAID has placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave Monday. That was joined by a “reduction in force” that will affect another 1,600 employees, a State Department spokesman said in an emailed response to questions. 

The agency is one of Trump's and the Department of Government Efficiency's biggest targets thus far in the project of Elon Musk to dramatically cut the size of the federal government. USAID will leave only a fraction of its employees on the job and the way things look, it may only be the toilet cleaners and window washers.

Trump and Musk have moved swiftly to shutter the foreign aid agency, calling its programs out of line with the president’s agenda and explaining that its $40,000,000,000 annual budget is wasteful in its role in foreign aid.

When you allocate $20,000,000 to produce a "Sesame Street" show in Iraq, known as "Ahlan Simsim Iraq," some may consider that wasteful spending initiated by the Biden administration. While they claim the show promotes inclusion and mutual respect across ethnic and religious groups, it seems that Hamas and other Islamic nations didn't get the message. DOGE argues that it represents frivolous spending and questions its relevance to U.S. taxpayers and its tangible impact. In other words, just because it sounds good doesn't mean it's doing any good anywhere other than lining the pockets of certain individuals.

Then we have up to $10,000,000 in USAID-funded meals that reportedly ended up with the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-linked terrorist group who enjoy killing people for religious reasons. Obviously, this is not merely wasteful spending, but clearly a potentially harmful misdirection of funds that also raises concerns about oversight and accountability within USAID.

Then there's the smaller projects such as a $2,000,000 grant for Moroccan pottery classes, and the same amount to promote tourism in Lebanon. WTAF? How are they connected to American interests?

DOGE argues they show a pattern of funding niche projects over more important domestic priorities.

Let's never forget how important the left sees DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) as being part of hiring practices like the one we had for a US Vice President last administration.

Examples include $1.5 million to promote LGBTQ+ advocacy in Serbia and $5.5 million for similar efforts in Uganda and Jamaica, countries with restrictive laws on these communities. DOGE views these as wasteful and ideologically motivated, aligning with Trump’s executive order to end DEI programs in federal agencies. A $70,000 grant for a DEI musical in Ireland further fuels this narrative, seen as an extravagant use of funds with little strategic value. 

Although the programs mentioned above, ranging from millions to tens of millions, are only a fraction of USAID's budget, DOGE sees them as symbolic of broader inefficiency.

The agency’s total cuts under DOGE are reported at $6.5 billion to $8 billion, with USAID leading the list of contract cancellations. Critics argue these cuts, while impactful in scale, often lack a nuanced assessment of the programs’ long-term benefits, such as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which DOGE axed despite its efficiency in optimizing food aid distribution.

In a report earlier this month from the Congressional Research Service, they say that  congressional authorization is required “to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID.” 

However, the Republican majorities in the House and Senate have made no pushback against the administration’s actions, just like the Democrats do when they have control of the House and Senate.

There’s virtually nothing left to fund, anyway: The administration now says it is eliminating over 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in U.S. assistance around the world. That's good for the taxpayers, good for the economy, and good for America.

It’s unclear how many of the more than 5,600 USAID employees who have been fired or placed on leave work at the agency’s headquarters building in Washington. A notice on the agency’s website said staff at other locations will have the chance to collect their personal belongings at a later date.

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