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Trump to Slash Most USAID Job 02/07 07:15

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration presented a plan Thursday to 
dramatically cut staffing worldwide for U.S. aid projects as part of its 
dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, leaving fewer 
than 300 workers out of thousands.

   Late Thursday, federal workers associations filed suit asking a federal 
court to stop the shutdown, arguing that President Donald Trump lacks the 
authority to shut down an agency enshrined in congressional legislation.

   Two current USAID employees and one former senior USAID official told The 
Associated Press of the administration's plan, presented to remaining senior 
officials of the agency Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to a 
Trump administration order barring USAID staffers from talking to anyone 
outside their agency.

   The plan would leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of what are 
currently 8,000 direct hires and contractors. They, along with an unknown 
number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run the few 
life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to keep going for 
the time being.

   It was not immediately clear whether the reduction to 300 would be permanent 
or temporary, potentially allowing more workers to return after what the Trump 
administration says is a review of which aid and development programs it wants 
to resume.

   The administration earlier this week gave almost all USAID staffers posted 
overseas 30 days, starting Friday, to return to the U.S., with the government 
paying for their travel and moving costs. Workers who choose to stay longer, 
unless they received a specific hardship waiver, might have to cover their own 
expenses, a notice on the USAID website said late Thursday.

   Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a trip to the Dominican Republic 
on Thursday that the U.S. government will continue providing foreign aid.

   "But it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our 
national interest," he told reporters.

   The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who is running a 
budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have targeted USAID hardest 
so far in an unprecedented challenge of the federal government and many of its 
programs.

   Since Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, a sweeping funding freeze has shut down 
most of the agency's programs worldwide, and almost all of its workers have 
been placed on administrative leave or furloughed. Musk and Trump have spoken 
of eliminating USAID as an independent agency and moving surviving programs 
under the State Department.

   Democratic lawmakers and others call the move illegal without congressional 
approval.

   The same argument was made by the American Foreign Service Association and 
the American Federation of Government Employees in their lawsuit, which asks 
the federal court in Washington to compel the reopening of USAID's buildings, 
return its staffers to work and restore funding.

   Government officials "failed to acknowledge the catastrophic consequences of 
their actions, both as they pertain to American workers, the lives of millions 
around the world, and to US national interests," the suit says.