USAID terminates nearly all its remaining employees

The Trump administration is terminating nearly all of the remaining 900 employees of the United States Agency for International Development, in a final reduction-in-force.

Virtually no one will be spared, not even political appointees, according to two senior USAID officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency.

Staff were ordered to leave “the front office” by 1 p.m. on Friday for reasons that are not clear, the officials said. But they may still be asked to continue working for a few months.

In an email to USAID staff, Jeremy Lewin, a Department of Government Efficiency official who took over running the day-to-day operations at USAID from Pete Marocco on March 20, said the RIFs would go into effect either on July 1 or September 2.

This comes as the Trump administration wraps up the dismantling of the 64-year-old USAID, having terminated some 5,200 contracts, and moves forward with its plan to shift the remaining portion of its work to the State Department.

“As you can imagine, there will be lots of work to responsibly migrate operations and responsibility to the State Department,” Lewin wrote in the email to staff.

Lewin said until their official end-of-work date staff would not be put on administrative leave but would be allowed to select one of two options on a form that would be provided to them on Saturday, March 29.

“Active Duty: A substantial portion of the Agency will be required to remain on duty to support the successful drawdown of operations and the transfer of programs to the State Department. If you are interested in remaining on active duty in this capacity, we would be grateful for your continued service.

Administrative Leave: If you prefer to step away and focus on next steps, voluntary administrative leave will be available. Unless otherwise instructed, all staff with RIF notices who are not already on administrative leave may opt to cease work activities and request leave.”

And overseas staff “will be offered safe and fully compensated return travel.”

Lewin said there would be a separate process established “for hiring personnel into available roles at the State Department” and that additional information would become available “likely in April or May.”

“In the next three months, we will work closely with the State Department to build their capacities to assume the responsible administration of USAID’s remaining life-saving and strategic aid programming,” Lewing wrote in the email.

In a statement Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration is “reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens.”

“Unfortunately, USAID strayed from its original mission long ago. As a result, the gains were too few and the costs were too high,” Rubio said.