{"id":14964,"date":"2025-02-02T19:57:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T19:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=14964"},"modified":"2025-02-02T19:57:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T19:57:23","slug":"future-of-us-aid-agency-in-doubt-after-website-goes-dark-and-officials-put-on-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=14964","title":{"rendered":"Future of US aid agency in doubt after website goes dark and officials put on leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\">Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=e95a1a1b-32f1-430c-89eb-799f9fd05af0&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The future of the main US agency for foreign aid is in doubt after its website went dark, two top security officials were put on leave and Trump ally Elon Musk labelled it \u201ca criminal organisation\u201d that should \u201cdie\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Aid workers, diplomats and lawmakers have been trying to make sense of a series of ominous developments at the US Agency for International Development. Its website is down, some officials have lost access to emails and been put on leave, and there are suggestions it will be absorbed into the state department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Trump spent two weeks harassing and laying off USAID employees, and now his team is trying to gut the agency altogether,\u201d Democratic Senator Chris Coons said on X on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>USAID is an independent agency with some 10,000 employees worldwide that is responsible for administering US foreign aid and development programmes. Former President Joe Biden elevated the USAID administrator to the National Security Council. Trump has not named a new USAID administrator.<\/p>\n<p>The state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the status of USAID\u2019s website or its plans for the agency. The USAID administrator works under the authority of Secretary of State Marco Rubio but it is an independent agency with its own budget.<\/p>\n<p>USAID did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Trump and his team have made clear that they want US foreign aid to align with his \u201cAmerica First\u201d platform. The absorption of USAID into the state department could mean less money available for long-standing US development and assistance programmes. This would slash American spending but could also harm humanitarian efforts worldwide and allow China to fill the void.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on CBS\u2019s Face the Nation on Sunday that USAID is \u201clikely going to be rolled more closely under Secretary Rubio\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would be absolutely for, if that\u2019s the path we go down, removing USAID as a separate department, and having it fall under\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009other parts of the United States\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009because of its failure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two top security officials were placed on leave on Saturday after they refused to allow officials from Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency to access agency systems, including classified information, according to a person familiar with the matter. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/02\/02\/politics\/usaid-officials-leave-musk-doge\/index.html\" data-trackable=\"link\">CNN<\/a> first reported the clash. Dozens of other career USAID officials have also been put on leave since last week, with some accused of trying to thwart Trump\u2019s directions for the agency.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has made Musk\u2019s DOGE responsible for cutting what both men say is wasteful US government spending.<\/p>\n<p>Musk fired off a series of criticisms of USAID on X on Sunday, calling it \u201ca criminal organisation\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTime for it to die,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/45fc5347-7f2c-4a99-9d4e-e561eb5a9285\" data-trackable=\"link\">already frozen<\/a> billions of dollars in foreign assistance. The immediate pause to all foreign aid projects has prompted crises at humanitarian and development organisations involved in everything from life-saving medical activities to anti-narcotics efforts to clean water programmes. <\/p>\n<p>Hundreds have been fired or furloughed and more cuts are expected in the weeks ahead. The state department last week created an exemption for some life-saving humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n<p>Current and former officials said the potential absorption of USAID into the state department could be a test case for the Trump administration as it looks to wield executive power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis administration appears to be testing what they can get away with in terms of acting unilaterally to reshape the functions and the footprint of the US government in ways that Congress has not authorised, Congress has not appropriated for, and Congress has, in fact, prohibited them from doing in certain statutes,\u201d said Tess Bridgeman, who worked in the state department\u2019s legal adviser office and on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/e95a1a1b-32f1-430c-89eb-799f9fd05af0\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}