2 days ago
7
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development are bracing for a loss of its independent status and sweeping layoffs as President Trump continues slashing foreign aid.
- Feb. 2, 2025Updated 3:19 p.m. ET
The two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development was put on administrative leave on Saturday night after refusing to give representatives of Elon Musk access to internal systems, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
John Voorhees, U.S.A.I.D.’s director of security, and his deputy are the latest senior officials at the agency to be put on administrative leave. Last week, Trump administration appointees suspended about 60 senior officials and fired hundreds of contractors. There has been talk among current and former agency employees and lawmakers that the agency could be subsumed within the State Department in a drastically reduced form.
The employees working for Mr. Musk’s task force who clashed with Mr. Voorhees were seeking to enter a secure area of the agency’s offices to get at classified material, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the incident said. It is not clear exactly what exchange took place between them and Mr. Voorhees, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
U.S.A.I.D., which is funded by Congress and takes some guidance from the State Department, has otherwise operated independently.
“USAID is a criminal organization,” Mr. Musk wrote on Sunday in a social media post that many aid workers saw as confirmation the agency would soon be absorbed into the State Department and that some viewed as a potential threat to their personal safety. “Time for it to die.”
U.S.A.I.D., which spent about $38.1 billion on health services, disaster relief, anti-poverty efforts and other foreign assistance programs in fiscal year 2023, makes up less than 1 percent of the federal budget.
