What is the U.S. Agency for International Development?
US Agency for International Development Revisited: An Analysis of the U.S. Agency’s Web Site, Social Media, and Twitter Accounts
Jeremy Konyndyk told NPR that the deletion of the website and social media accounts alongside significant layoffs is an effort to dismantle the agency. Konyndyk was in charge of disaster relief under Obama and Biden. He is the president of Refugees International.
“It needs to die,” he wrote. According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration put two officials from the US Agency for International Development on administrative leave after they refused to allow DOGE workers to see confidential documents.
USAID provides humanitarian assistance during global conflicts and other emergencies. Public health and education are funded by it. It works to help the U.S. interests abroad.
The original website of the United States Agency for International Development had reports and information from a range of the agency’s work, but they have been reduced in this section.
The first item that appears on the State web page is a press release: “Implementing the President’s Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid.”
President Trump temporarily halted foreign assistance in that order on the first day of his presidency, writing that foreign aid serves to “destabilize world peace.”
The dissolution would extend beyond “the unlawful destruction of USAID’s life-saving work,” Gawande told NPR. “USAID has become the place where the administration is demonstrating and developing its playbook for eviscerating other targeted agencies.”
“They have announced no plan and given no rationale — they’re just taking everything down,” Konyndyk said. “They’re trying to do it behind the scenes rather than openly,” he said, so they don’t have to “defend what they’re doing” in announcements to the public.
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The consequences of a diminished or erased USAID would be dire, Konyndyk said, noting that one key component of its programs is keeping outbreaks and epidemics from reaching U.S. shores.
After the stop work order and the lay off of hundreds of employees, the web was shut down. In his first two weeks in office, the Trump administration placed senior leadership at USAID on leave and laid off or furloughed more than 400 contractors in the agency’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and also laid off hundreds more in its Global Health Bureau.
Democrats in Congress are not happy with the actions being taken. The dissolution of USAID would be “illegal and against our national interests,” Sen. Chuck Schumer posted on Bluesky Friday evening.
The question of the legality of any attempt to change the status of USAID is connected to its origins. President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order in 1961 to establish an independent agency to focus on development after Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act. Congress established the agency as an independent agency in 1998.
Konyndyk said that it cannot just be undone by an executive order. Congress will have to act to remove the agency from the State Department.
The USAID Challenge: How the Reagan-Colliding Senate Returned in 1971 to Expand a Foreign Assistance Agency to Improve Security and Humanitarian Affairs
Created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, the U.S. Agency for International Development emerged from an effort to separate military and non-military assistance and revamp how the U.S. distributed foreign aid.
Kennedy argued that the U.S., as the wealthiest country on Earth, had a moral and financial obligation to provide foreign aid. He said that it was important for the U.S. to fund projects in poorer countries in order to prevent the downfall of existing political and social structures which would inevitably cause the emergence of totalitarianism.
In 1971, the Senate refused to approve a foreign aid bill because of concerns that foreign assistance was not helping our interests abroad. The U.S. foreign aid effort was refocused by Congress on projects designed to tackle specific issues.
Still, in the decades since, some lawmakers and public officials have continued to question USAID’s effectiveness and accountability as an independent agency.
An archived post on USAID’s website, which vanished in recent days, said the agency responds to an average of 75 humanitarian crises each year, and has recently provided support during ongoing emergencies in Haiti as well as countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Other issues the agency has been working on include food security, climate change and global health. Experts have noted that a key component of USAID’s work is preventing disease outbreaks and epidemics from reaching the U.S.
The recent decision to freeze the agency’s activities is already having ramifications abroad. The reconstruction of police stations in Pakistan that were damaged in a flood and a project giving education to girls in Taliban controlled Afghanistan could be stopped, according to NPR.