US aid agency at center of political uproar

The US Agency for International Development announced on Tuesday it was placing its staff members in the United States and around the world on administrative leave as it moved to recall employees from overseas postings.

The agency said in a statement that staff leave would begin shortly before midnight on Friday and would concern "all USAID direct hire personnel ... with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs".

The move is part of US President Donald Trump's — and his billionaire ally Elon Musk's — radical drive to shrink the government. The Trump administration and Republicans are targeting the agency, which is funded by US tax dollars, while Democrats are accusing them of going too far.

"For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight," the White House said on Monday.

Among the USAID spending that the White House singled out were "$2 million for sex changes and 'LGBT activism' in Guatemala" and "$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt".

USAID was created by an executive order of former president John F. Kennedy in 1961 during the Cold War era after Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act. It was seen as an avenue for countering the influence of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

After declaring a 90-day freeze on almost all foreign aid, Trump on Monday named Secretary of State Marco Rubio the acting administrator of USAID, which has a $50 billion annual budget. The USAID website has also been shut down.

"There are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue ...but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy," Rubio said on Monday during a visit to El Salvador.

"Every dollar we spend and every program we fund will be aligned with the national interest of the United States, and USAID has a history of ignoring this and deciding that they're a global charity and ignoring that."

USAID has missions in more than 100 countries and distributes more than half of all US foreign assistance, according to US government data.

"We partner to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity", is how USAID has described its mission.

Officials sent on leave

Dozens of senior USAID officials have been placed on leave, thousands of contractors laid off, and employees were told on Monday not to enter the agency's Washington headquarters.

More than 100 USAID employees protested the shutdown outside the headquarters at the Ronald Reagan Building on Monday, joined by some Democratic lawmakers.

"We don't have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk," Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told the crowd. "You (Musk) don't control the money of the American people. The United States Congress does."

Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and the Senate minority leader, said on the Senate floor on Monday that "unilaterally closing USAID is illegal".

About six in 10 US citizens said the government was spending "too much" overall on foreign aid, according to a March 2023 Associated Press-NORC poll.

Some seven in 10 said the government was allocating too much assistance to other countries. About nine in 10 Republicans and 55 percent of Democrats agreed that the country was overspending on foreign aid.

At the same time, about six in 10 said the government was spending "too little" on domestic issues such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, Social Security and Medicare.

Another politically contentious issue concerns the Department of Education, which Trump is looking to dismantle.

Abolishing the DOE would require congressional approval, and Trump said on Tuesday "I'd work with Congress" on the future of the department.

"I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job," Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, referring to his pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon.

Agencies contributed to this story.