President Donald Trump's administration on Sunday said it was placing all personnel at the foreign assistance agency USAID, except leaders and critical staff around the world, on paid administrative leave and eliminating 1,600 positions in the United States.
Just before midnight on Sunday US Eastern Time, all United States Agency for International Development direct hire personnel except essential workers, will be put on leave, the agency said on its website. The agency is also "beginning to implement a Reduction-in-Force" affecting about 1,600 USAID personnel in the U.S., the notice said.
An earlier notice sent to staff and reviewed by Reuters said about 2,000 US positions would be eliminated.
Billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has led an effort to gut USAID, the main delivery mechanism for American foreign assistance, a critical tool of US "soft power" for winning influence abroad.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, a federal judge cleared the way for the Trump administration to put thousands of USAID workers on leave, a setback for government employee unions that are suing over what they have called an effort to dismantle it.
Two former senior USAID officials estimated that a majority of some 4,600 USAID personnel, career U.S. Civil Service and Foreign Service staffers, would be placed on administrative leave.
"This administration and Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio are shortsighted in cutting into the expertise and unique crisis response capacity of the US," said Marcia Wong, one of the former officials. "When disease outbreaks occur, populations displaced, these USAID experts are on the ground and first deployed to help stabilize and provide aid?"
"Unsigned notices like this are not self-implementing. They must be followed up by an individual personnel action or at least an approved leave slip, properly executed by someone with that authority," said the second former official, who asked not to be further identified.
Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe.
The administration has approved exceptions to the freeze totaling $5.3 billion, mostly for security and counter-narcotics programs, according to a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters that included limited humanitarian relief.
USAID programs received less than $100 million in exemptions, according to the list. That compares to roughly $40 billion in USAID programs administered annually before the freeze.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
