Thousands of people on Wednesday came after a shocking announcement Tuesday evening that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) puts almost all of its employees on vacation and reminds them of thousands of executives overseas. We gathered at.
The news came only a few days after nearly 1,000 contractors were fired, the USAID website was deleted and their X accounts were deleted.
Protesters gathered near the Capitol in the cold and cloudy sky and chanted, “Let us work!” And then “USAID! USAID!”
“We’re in a very bad place,” Jeremy Konundick, USAID’s chief executive under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, told the crowd. “An attempt to kill USAID kills people.”
Competitors such as Russia and China were rooting for the decision, he added.
He said his voice, especially lawmakers, had supported the agency and their work for many years, when he spoke to members of the Congress in the hall behind him.
“I know that what’s been said about USAID is not true,” Konyndyk said. “Speak up! Where are you?”
“It’s a production dictatorship,” Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey told the crowd. “This is an example,” he said, of what the Trump administration can do for agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“We are the moral power of the world,” Markey said. “The only way to get our government back is to take it on the streets by millions of people to demand justice not just for our country but for the rest of the world.”
Almost all of USAID’s work, including preventing HIV and hunger, rebuilding the post-conflict state, and improving education, were unexpectedly suspended on January 24th due to a 90-day review.
Experts say the erasure of government agencies is a test run by the Trump administration. This is also placed in the crosshairs in agencies such as the Ministry of Education and the National Maritime and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“This shows that novel devices can be implemented against US government devices, including foreign aid,” Gioia Moekerjee, chief medical officer of Health’s nonprofit partner, told the Guardian.
USAID has enjoyed bipartisan support in the past, but is now a target for conservatives. But Mukherjee said nothing has changed in Washington about the work of aid.
“I think my fidelity to Trump has changed,” she said. Congressional members are “fearing Trump,” she added. “This is just a loyalty test.”
According to a USAID source who read the recall letter, Pete Marrocco, who was allegedly filmed and filmed during the January 6 riot, will threaten aid workers with military action if they fail to comply with evacuation orders. It looked like.
Marrocco was appointed as USAID deputy administrator on Monday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. That position must be confirmed by the US Senate before it is met.
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Rubio told reporters Monday.
The aid agency was established in 1961, but was enacted by Congress as an independent body in 1998. Only lawmakers have the authority to dismantle or move it.
“What’s going on is unconstitutional and unlawful,” said Sharon Baker, who worked on USAID grants and contracts for 11 years before resigning.
“It’s huge. It’s going to affect all Americans,” she said before adding USAID staff: (After the earthquake and tsunami), they are the first ones there. You can see planes offloading equipment that says “from Americans.” ”
There is no precedent for the move to halt work without direction from Congress and dissolve government agencies by the State Department, said one of the contractors who worked at USAID for 20 years last week.
“It puts us and the world in danger in a way that has never been seen before,” said the contractor who requested anonymity to protect his job.
“I think this is what Project 2025 does. They’re doing what they said they’d do.”
Cricket Nikovic, who works in the non-profit outcome, said the suspension order is “the most devastating thing we have seen with foreign aid since we began tackling hunger in Ethiopia.”
“Congress needs to get up and protect USAID. Conservatives say they’ve been caring about these issues for many years,” Nikovich said.
“If they’re not pushed back, the demolition of this program will cost hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.”
