Democratic members of Congress have challenged the Trump administration's apparent attempt to fold the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) into the State Department, a move that calls into question funding for aid programs around the world, including billions of dollars in development aid to Ukraine.
The lawmakers gathered outside the main office of the USAID in downtown Washington on February 3 to criticize what they called an “illegal maneuver” by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump with downsizing the government.
The Democratic lawmakers held the gathering as a protest after reports that agency employees had been told not to report to work on February 3 and subsequently were locked out of their government e-mail and other accounts as a gutting of the agency appeared to be under way.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk said on X on February 3.
The lawmakers who spoke outside the agency’s main office in Washington defended the work of the USAID and said the actions interfered with congressional power.
“We don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk. And that’s going to become real clear,” said Representative Jamie Raskin (Democrat-Maryland).
He added that he didn’t know what Musk’s motivations were, “but they’ve got nothing to do with what has been lawfully adopted by the people of the United States of America through the Congress of the United States. We’re going to defend USAID all the way.”
Senator Chris Murphy (Democrat-Connecticut) said the move created a constitutional crisis and vowed to fight it.
“The people get to decide how their taxpayer money is spent. Elon Musk does not get to decide,” he said, also speaking alongside Raskin at the USAID building.
Murphy called the move an attempt to “turn this government over to a handful of unelected billionaires and corporate interests, and we are not going to let them do that.”
USAID is an independent government agency established by Congress in 1961 and has a workforce of approximately 10,000 people around the world. It is the U.S. government’s main international aid arm and receives tens of billions of dollars from Congress annually to fund programs in some of the world's poorest countries.
These include anti-poverty programs, health programs, disaster relief, and programs to promote democracy and defend human rights.
SEE ALSO: Trump's USAID Reform Causes Alarm As Musk Weighs In On Foreign AidA recent report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said USAID in fiscal year 2023 managed more than $40 billion in combined appropriations to support projects in around 130 countries. The top three recipients of aid were Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Jordan. Afghanistan is also one of the top 10 recipients of USAID funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that he is the acting director of USAID but said he has delegated that authority so he would not be running its day-to-day operations. He informed Congress of the reorganization of the agency in a letter, saying some parts of USAID might be absorbed by the State Department and the remainder may be abolished.
The move is “not about ending the programs that USAID does,” but about taking policy direction from the State Department, Rubio said.
Speaking in El Salvador during a visit to South America, Rubio said he has been frustrated with USAID for years by what he said was the agency’s refusal to respond to State Department policy directives. The agency “has to be aligned with American foreign policy,” he said.
Rubio stressed that the money that USAID receives are taxpayer dollars, but the agency has become a “global charity separate from the national interest.”
In an interview with Fox News later on February 3, he said: “I think we’re going to be the most generous nation on Earth in a way that makes sense, that’s in our national interest.” The State Department posted a transcript of the interview at its website.
Members of Congress took aim at Musk, the world's richest man, when news broke early on February 3 that employees had been sent e-mails on February 2 telling them not to report to work the next day.
Senator Patty Murray (Democrat-Washington) accused Musk of taking the actions against USAID while SpaceX stands to make millions of dollars in profit from government contracts with the Pentagon.
Murray told a news conference at the Capitol that the freeze of already approved funds for USAID is putting “trust at the lowest level” seen in a lifetime and asked what funds would be seized next.
But the White House was adamant that the agency must be reformed, publishing a statement highlighting the "waste and abuse" it said existed at USAID, including $1.5 million to "advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities."
It also singled out funding for the production of a “transgender opera" in Colombia, a “transgender comic book” in Peru, and for “sex changes and LGBT activism” in Guatemala.
“The list literally goes on and on -- and it has all been happening for decades,” the statement said. “Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW.”