The State Department is Changing Faces: Recalling Foreign Service Employees in the U.S. and Implications for Their Families
Three sources tell us that the State Department has started withdrawing United States Agency for International Development personnel who are stationed overseas.
A number of workers from the US Agency for International Development have been restricted access to their workspace and ordered to stop work because of a government shutdown. Many independent contractors have been laid off. The guidance to employees has been inconsistent and confusing, which is stoking fear and chaos.
I’m aware of the emotional toll this will take on those impacted as well as the team assisting. The Ops Center’s task force space has a Coordination Support Team that will be given to us immediately.
Current and former federal government officials were not authorized to speak publicly about the plan to recall overseas staff, but they told NPR about it.
The State Department asked overseas missions to give the number of people they have at their locations in a memo sent late Monday night.
More than two-thirds of USAID’s 10,000 employees serve overseas in at least 60 countries and regional missions, according to a January 25 report by the Congressional Research Service.
The quick recall means that employees have just a few days to figure out where they are going, how to make arrangements for their pets, children and belongings, and if they can still take them out of school. Meanwhile, withdrawing over a thousand foreign service officers and their families will likely be extremely costly, multiple diplomatic sources tell NPR.
Many employees at the US Agency for International Development have been locked out of their work phone and email accounts and put on leave in recent days, including some who are working on public health missions. This shows that the emergency waivers application process is not sure if aid workers can still serve vulnerable populations.
The Trump administration’s funding freeze is preventing the use of US aid in countries where it pays for operations. That has led employees both within and outside USAID to fear that soon they’ll lose access to electricity, communications, security backups, trash pickups, medical evacuations, and other services.
FOUNDED FOCUS ON THE AMERICAN HIGH POWER DOGE AND THE PHOTOGRAPHIC STORY
DOGE was created by President Trump, but it is not a separate Cabinet or federal agency. That has not stopped it, however, from taking fast and dramatic action, like when Musk detailed on his social media platform X that his team had gained access to payment systems inside the Treasury Department.
WIRED interviewed eight current and former USAID employees and contractors for this story, several of whom directly work on the agency’s HIV and AIDS programs. They were spared anonymity due to fears of reprisal, and because they were not authorized to speak about the agency. USAID did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk said on the social media that they had been feeding the aid organization into the wood chipper. Can I go to some great parties? Did that instead?
The global health program was started by the former president George W. Bush and is overseen by the State Department. It’s implemented by a handful of government agencies, including USAID. The waiver allows the program toresume some activities, but sources told WIRED that most of its work has been stopped because of the foreign aid freeze.
An HIV/AIDS organization told WIRED that your money is unfrozen but you cannot contact the people who froze it. “There’s a bigger communication blockage that is frustrating even the efforts put in place to free up the lifesaving work.”
Reexamining the U.S. Agency for International Development: a First Look at the Musk-Cornyn and the DOGE Initiatives
With each episode, Republicans in Congress have so far demonstrated little willingness to get crosswise with the new administration — even when it moved to reverse past decisions by lawmakers on how the government spends money.
Last week, the concerns were fueled by a memo from the Office of Management and Budget instructing federal agencies to pause all federal grants and other payments. The memo was later rescinded after a court challenge that resulted in a temporary restraining order — but the White House has said its broader effort to rein in spending will continue.
The administration has the right to demand accountability and transparency in all these programs, says John Barrasso, the senate’s number two GOP leader.
The Secretary of State made comments on Monday raising fears about transparency about the spending of the United States Agency for International Development. Rubio later said he would be overseeing the agency and sent a letter to congressional committees saying he was reviewing and reorganizing its operations.
Many Republicans are now saying that a review of foreign aid programs is necessary, because Congress authorized spending through the annual appropriations process.
The Senate majority leader told reporters the Trump administration has the right to review funding and make decisions, despite the fact that the United States Agency for International Development was not closing down.
The opening weeks of the new administration have shown a divide in Capitol Hill, underscored by the reaction to Musk and the DOGE initiative. While Democrats have sought to frame Musk’s work as an undemocratic power grab by an un-elected billionaire, Republicans have described it as a long overdue review of foreign aid.
“There’s a lot of the spending that goes on through USAID that does not appear to be consistent with U.S. policy, and so I’m all for a review to make sure that taxpayer dollars are going to programs and people that are consistent with our government’s policies,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the agency was due for a review, especially when it comes to overhead costs. She was a rare Republican who raised doubts about how Musk was going.
“The law is every specific and if there’s going to be a reorganization of USAID then Congress has to be informed 15 days in advance and a detailed explanation of any changes has to be provided.”
The letter about reviewing the agency did not fit with the requirements of the law according to Collins. Collins did not say what her panel would do.
She said that she was not sure where the authority of that happened and that she believed that some of Musk’s assistants had requested access to classified information.
“I don’t think we know what he’s doing at the moment,” said another GOP appropriator. He toldNPR that he wanted a briefing on the plans of DOGE, and that they were in the process of figuring it out.
A move by an executive branch to turn off a federal agency “runs afoul of the Constitution in strictest sense,” said Sen. Tillis, R-North Carolina. But he argued that former President Joe Biden took similar steps.
“It’s not uncommon for presidents to flex a little bit on where they can spend and where they can stop spending,” Tillis said. Nobody should feel bad about that.
The senator pointed to the example of the Biden administration’s efforts to forgive student loan debt as a way ofstepping on Congress’ spending authority. That push, Hawley said, “remains the high watermark for presidential lawlessness vis-à-vis Congress in my lifetime.”
For now, the reaction inside the GOP about giving Trump and Musk broad leeway over how federal money is spent centers on the debate over foreign aid. In recent years there has been a split in the party about how much the U.S. should be directing to other countries. During the 2024 campaign, Trump’s “America first” message resonated with the party’s base, and that dynamic could continue to play out in upcoming congressional debates on federal funding.
trillions of federal spending for both international and domestic programs was involved by the OMB last week. Few GOP lawmakers publicly objected when people in their districts called their offices to warn of the possible loss of assistance such as day care and school lunch. The pause also risked funding for projects many Republicans inserted into spending bills for roads, water projects and other community programs in their states and districts.
GOP lawmakers will soon have another opportunity to exert their influence on federal spending. Unless Congress passes legislation, agencies will run out of money on March 14.