There may not be any more help for the troubled U.S. Agency for International Development after Friday, when the State Department announced that it was shutting down.
The move was made a few hours before a federal appeals court overturned a lower court’s order that stopped Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from taking down USAID.
The new deputy director of USAID, Jeremy Lewin, wrote in a memo sent to employees on Friday and seen by ABC News that the State Department “intends to assume responsibility for many of USAID’s functions and its ongoing programming.” Lewin used to work for the Department of Government Efficiency.
As soon as possible, the State Department “will seek to retire USAID’s independent operation” and “assess” whether to rehire an unknown number of officials to “assume the responsible administration of USAID’s remaining life-saving and strategic aid programming,” the memo said.
“This transfer will significantly enhance efficiency, accountability, uniformity, and strategic impact in delivering foreign assistance programs — allowing our nation and President to speak with one voice in foreign affairs,” the memo says.
“It will also obviate the need for USAID to continue operating as an independent establishment,” the memo stated.
The memo said, “All non-statutory positions at USAID will be eliminated.”
Two weeks ago, a court said that attempts to dismantle USAID on their own were probably against the Constitution.
On Friday, a panel of three judges on the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit stayed that decision, saying that the Trump administration is likely to show that the DOGE’s efforts to dismantle USAID did not violate the Constitution.
“Defendants’ role and actions related to USAID are not typical, however, unusual does not always mean unconstitutional,” wrote Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. in a separate opinion.
Trump administration officials, including Musk’s DOGE group, have been leading a large-scale effort to break up the agency by firing thousands of workers, cutting money to more than 80% of its programs, and closing its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Experts say that the decision to completely shut down a federal agency will likely be looked at by the courts because such a move would normally need approval from Congress.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the administration was beginning to wind down USAID and that the State Department would now be in charge of foreign aid.
“This foolish and wasteful era is now over, thanks to President Trump,” Rubio said in his statement. “We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens.”
“We are continuing essential lifesaving programs and making strategic investments that strengthen our partners and our own country,” Rubio said in his speech.
Some people who do not like the Trump administration say that its plans to get rid of the agency will weaken American power abroad and hurt the world’s weakest people the most, since they depended on U.S. aid for food, medical care, and other basic needs.
The State Department also said that its leaders and the leaders of USAID had told Congress that they planned to change how some USAID functions are run within the State Department by July 1 of this year.
Several court cases are fighting against the overall plan to get rid of USAID and the cuts to the agency’s staff.
