HQ Team
February 5, 2025: All the US Agency for International Development (USAID) direct hire personnel have been placed on administrative leave globally.
The only exception the US government made is for personnel “designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs,” according to a USAID statement posted on its website.
The order took effect on February 7, and “agency leadership” will inform essential personnel expected to continue working by February 6, according to the statement.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced new leadership and a potential restructuring of USAID on February 3.
Reshaping federal government
President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted the USAID for a potential shutdown — the latest in its push to radically reshape the federal government and freeze foreign assistance.
The Department of Government Efficiency, according to a President’s Order, is headed by Elon Musk.
The USAID is the humanitarian aid arm and administers a wide array of programs around the world focused on fighting disease, reducing poverty and providing relief to people impacted by conflicts and natural disasters.
“For USAID personnel currently posted outside the United States, the Agency, in coordination with missions and the Department of State, is currently preparing a plan,” under which the agency would arrange and pay for return travel to the United States within 30 days and provide for the termination of PSC (personal service contractor) and ISC (independent service contractor) contracts that are not determined to be essential.”
Case-by-case exceptions
The agency will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility or safety concerns, or other reasons.
It will consider exceptions based on the timing of the dependents’ school term, personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons. “Further guidance on how to request an exception will be forthcoming,” according to the statement.
The USAID website has been dismantled, and the posting appears to be the sole information on its website. The online posting ended with “Thank you for your service.”
The agency has more than 10,000 employees, with about two-thirds serving overseas, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
60 country, regional offices
USAID was established in 1961 to implement the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. It assists US commercial interests by supporting developing countries’ economic growth and building countries’ capacity to participate in world trade.
Some 1,400 work in the agency’s D.C. headquarters. The agency maintains more than 60 country and regional missions.
The agency provides humanitarian aid to more than 100 countries. In the financial year ended 2023, the USAID assisted approximately 130 countries.
The top 10 recipients of USAID-managed funds in 2023 were Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Syria.
Starting in the early 1990s, health was consistently the largest USAID sector by funding, bolstered since 2004 by billions of dollars in transfers from the State’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and since 2020 by emergency assistance to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
