A decision to place almost 60 senior career leaders at the U.S. Agency for International Development on administrative leave was temporarily reversed by a senior career civil servant, Nick Gottlieb. However, Gottlieb was later also placed on administrative leave for refusing to issue immediate termination notices to employees without due process. The State Department announced a freeze on U.S. foreign aid in line with President Trump’s executive order, leading to layoffs and furloughs at USAID. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued waivers to the freeze, but the cuts to the USAID workforce continued. The damage caused by these cuts to both funding for aid groups and the staff in the development world may be irreversible, according to former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk, who warned that the intricate architecture of U.S. foreign aid could be broken. The situation highlights the challenges faced by USAID and its employees, as well as the potential long-term consequences of the cuts to foreign aid funding. The fate of the agency and its workforce remains uncertain, as it navigates the impact of the freeze on U.S. foreign aid.
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