Dozens of senior employees within the American Bureau for International Development, USAID, were placed with administrative leave until further notice and hundreds of contractors have fed or terminated their employment, several sources told CBS News. This followed the State Secretary Marco Rubios Order last Friday, who immediately stopped on almost all foreign auxiliary care funded by the US worldwide.
CBS News spoke with a dozen current and former USAID employees and contractors who were given anonymity to speak openly.
An e -mail obtained by CBS News and sent from the acting manager of USAID Jason Gray to USAID staff on Monday stated that “a number of USAID employees” were placed with full wages and benefits for further message after “Different actions within USAID who seem to seem To be those who seem to be who seem to be that seem to be designed to bypass the executive orders of the president and were identified the mandate of the American people “.
About 60 senior employees within USAID are suspended -including the assistant managers and deputy assistant assistants who lead most of his desks -without clear leadership, told five sources that are familiar with the internal action to CBS News. The majority of those placed on leave were career officers and foreign service providers. They also include USAID lawyers in the office of the General Counselor, who are responsible for interpreting the executive orders for implementation.
One source told CBS News that the affected people were told to “go home and not communicate with someone” at USAID. Two sources told CBS News that some of the people in question have physically guided the building.
CBS News has also learned that a few hundred contractors at USAID have been redeemed or fired, according to six sources that are familiar with the action. Some have been informed that they were immediately terminated without severance payment and that their benefits will end within three days at the end of January, while others who have been redeemed have told that their benefits will remain in force until the end of February.
Rubio’s order is part of an attempt from the administration to meet President Trump’s campaign blows to reduce the size of the federal workforce, and Looking for places to cut What it sees as wasteful government spending. Mr. Trump has long ruled that other countries do not contribute enough when it comes to foreign aid, and that the US is the victim of the burden. But critics say that such cutbacks can undermine the position of America in the world and create an opening for China and other opponents who want to exert their influence abroad.
In response to Rubio’s mandate to stop federal foreign help, stop-work orders were issued on Monday and Tuesday to companies that hold contracts with USAID and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Termination letters sent to two CBS News obtained by CBS News: “This letter is to inform you that of January 28, 2025 your employment contract [federal contract holder] is terminated due to a contract report. Unfortunately, [federal contract holder] Received a stop -work order, and without authority to continue, we have no work for you to perform. “
There is language in the termination letters that read: “We hope that this situation is temporary and that you can return to your positions.” However, the E -mail accounts of the employees at USAID and the contract company were concluded and the termination letters were sent to their personal e -mails afterwards, says Sources.
One source said that USAID employees had shortened to raise requests for exemptions for programs as soon as Rubio had sent the order.
“Then they supervised physically usaid leadership. The exemption process was a joke,” said the source.
“USAID is absolutely stripped,” said another source in the desk. “This is surgical to stop programs. Living are at stake here. We endanger lives.”
Spokesperson Tammy Bruce of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tammy Bruce told reporters at the end of Tuesday on Tuesday that “Personnel received a template for distance requests.”
Rubio, later on Tuesday, then gave an exemption for his own foreign help break. In a second memo, CBS provided by a senior official of the administration, Rubio stated that the exemption applies to “life -saving humanitarian aid”, which he defined as “life -saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and self -provision aid, also as supplies And reasonable administrative costs if necessary to offer such help. ”
The memo also stated: “Implementers of existing life -saving humanitarian utility programs must continue or resume if they have stopped.”
The new exemption does not apply to “activities involving abortions, conferences for family planning, gender or del ideology programs, transgender surgeons or other non-lifelife controls” according to the memo.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet given clarification as to whether some of the US funded foreign utilities are now automatically exempt as a result of the new statement from Rubio, or whether all programs worldwide still have to apply for a distance statement to return turn to receiving American financing.
It is not immediately clear how this new exemption will influence those whose work has already been terminated.
In the copy of Rubio’s first order obtained by CBS News last Friday, he told all American diplomatic and consular items to immediately publish “Stop -Work” orders for existing foreign assistance prices, “pending assessment by the State Secretary .
Rubio had also stated in his first order that “exceptions” on the break that has been approved by the director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Foreign Assistance, are also exempt, without further specifying what those exceptions are. CBS News has learned that Pete Marocco, a former deputy assistant – Secretary of African Affairs at the Pentagon, will now fulfill in a senior target role within the foreign aid office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – internally known as ‘F’ – who supervises it Ministry of Foreign Affairs and USAID.
“I was so destroyed [as] Until what just happened, “said one of USAID -Source.” We enjoyed the work we had done and how it contributed to helping people around the world. What took place was not fair at all. This never took place in any administration change, “they said, adding that they had respected the change and” had exercised to build a relationship with the new administration. “
Two now formator USAID contractors expressed deep concern about having life-threatening health problems, in one case worse by frequent work trips, and suddenly they find without medical insurance after the end of the month on Friday.
“Our contractor could have paid us for two weeks. Or at least until next week, so that we can have a health insurance policy until February,” says another USAID contractor whose employment was terminated on Tuesday. “It feels apocalyptic. Each e -mail felt like a threat that started last week and then they followed.” The source added that in their office on Monday and Tuesday “people were in disorder and Gebawling … people are terrified. Direct employees feel intense surviving guilt and do not know what to do.”
A number of USAID contractors were also terminated last week without being placed on leave or being dismissed as a result of the aiming at the executive order Diversity, fairness and inclusion programs. This included persons who were not dei advisers, or had no primary functions with regard to dei, but possibly contributed to collective efforts in the workplace aimed at inclusiveness and accessibility in the Biden administration.
Termination letters sent to those employees last Thursday evening read: “Directly in force, USAID no longer requires the services that you are currently performing on the contract. From today, USAID will end the financing for this position.”
Multiple sources also told CBS News that in various usaid annex office buildings, photos that are hung on the programs and beneficiaries of the agencies and beneficiaries of the walls have been stripped. Removing photos is “not a normal protocol” between the administrations, one source said.
“They are physically dismantling things in the building,” said a second source. “They erase our existence,” said a third.
CBS News
CBS News
Contractors of the Global Health Office of USAID – the department responsible for projects relating to HIV/AIDS treatment, health of mothers and children, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases – belonged to those who received termination messages on Tuesday. According to two sources, all contractors in the Global Health Bureau, around 450 technical experts, were terminated. Those contractors form around 50% of the entire USAID Global Health staff, so that only around 450 direct employees still work in that agency.
The Emergency Plan of the President for AIDS Relief, or Pepfar – started by the board of George W. Bush in 2003 – is suddenly one of the remarkable government programs stopped Since Rubio has issued the order, which may interrupt the delivery of antiviral medicines (ARVs) for millions of HIV and AIDS patients worldwide. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pepfar has saved the lives of 26 million people since the start.
Although the financing can be returned pending the outcome of a 90-day assessment, there is also a growing concern among proponents that congress support for Pepfar is in danger because of a revelation earlier this month that groups received help, have carried out abortions, what A violation is what a violation is, which is a violation, which is a violation, which is a violation of our legislation. Reuters reported that four nurses in Mozambique had performed 21 abortions since 2021. This revelation can also be part of the upcoming assessment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Currently, 20.6 million people worldwide are on life -saving drugs because of Pepfar, told a source of CBS News, so the freezing in American auxiliary finance can lead to “hundreds of thousands of deaths, especially for women and children, depending on the length of the length of the Length of the length of the length of the length of the length freeze. ”
“This is a crime against humanity,” the source added.
“This purification is unprecedented, is a threat to our national security, makes America less safe and seems [to be] Congressional Authority bypass, “said a former USAID employee.
“For me this is an unmistakably hostile acquisition of our democracy,” said another source that is hit by the Federal Assistance Freeze. “USAID is only the first victim. But there are more to it. With the intention of using power for any purposes they feel.”
Margaret Brennan has contributed to this report.
