Earlier in February, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was tapped to head the now significantly scaled back United States Agency for International Development (USAID) after President Donald Trump paused all U.S. international aid for 90 days while he mulls over the future of the 64-year-old agency.
The agency, which typically boasts an annual budget of around $50 billion, has been caught in the crosshairs of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which alleges the agency has mismanaged spending and has crossed the line into fraudulent activities.
Investigations by DOGE suggest that significant sums of money were funnelled through USAID to various organizations and individuals, with some funds allegedly cycling back to accounts in the United States. This has led to accusations of the agency being used as a conduit for corruption and money laundering.
In response, the Trump administration has initiated significant changes within USAID. The agency’s staff has been dramatically reduced from over 10,000 employees to approximately 600, with plans to retain only essential personnel handling critical humanitarian aid and global health programs. Thousands of other employees have been placed on administrative leave as part of a broader effort to restructure the agency in line with the administration’s “America First” policy.
According to the NY Post, on Feb. 3, Rubio said that he was appointed “acting director of USAID,” and that he had delegated much of his responsibilities for that role to “someone.”
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“This is not about ending the programs that USAID does, per se,” he said. “There are things that it does that are good, and there are things that it does that we have strong questions about.”
“My frustrations with USAID goes back to my time in Congress. It’s a completely unresponsive agency,” Rubio said.
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Reorganizing the agency
The “someone” Rubio alluded to is Foreign Assistance Director, Peter Marocco, a former defense and State Department official, who has been asked to “review” and “reorganize” the agency.
“USAID has numerous conflicting, overlapping, and duplicative functions that it shares with the Department of State,” Marocco wrote in a report to top Republicans and Democrats of the House and Senate.
“The Department of State and other pertinent entities will be consulting with Congress and the appropriate committees to reorganize and absorb certain bureaus, offices, and missions of USAID,” Rubio told lawmakers, adding that, “USAID may move, reorganize, and integrate certain missions, bureaus, and offices into the Department of State, and the remainder of the Agency may be abolished consistent with applicable law.”
Projects that were funded by USAID that Musk’s DOGE took exception with included a number of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, that DOGE said were misaligned with the agency’s core mission.
These initiatives have been criticized by DOGE for being politically driven.
In addition, a number of overseas LGBTQ+ cultural projects have been defunded, projects DOGE deemed as not essential to USAID’s primary objectives.
Funding for climate change and renewable energy programs were also cut to bring USAID’s activities in line with the new administration’s focus on promoting fossil fuels.
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Legal hurdles
While many argue that reorganizing USAID is well within the president’s authority, closing it down entirely or placing it under the control of the State Department may not be.
USAID was founded on Nov. 3, 1961, by an executive order from President John F. Kennedy. It was created as part of the Foreign Assistance Act, which aimed to streamline U.S. foreign aid efforts by uniting various international development programs under a single agency.
The agency was established to promote economic growth, humanitarian assistance, and social progress in developing countries, reflecting Cold War-era policies that sought to counter Soviet influence by fostering stability and goodwill through aid.
However, many, including the Trump administration, argue that the agency has strayed significantly away from its intended mandate.
Originally, USAID was part of the Department of State, however in 1998 Congress transformed the agency into an “independent establishment” within the executive branch.
“An independent establishment, as defined by law, is not part of another agency. That suggests that the president cannot dissolve the agency or move it entirely into the State Department without violating the intent of Congress,” The Epoch Times reported.
This may be why Trump has not shuttered the agency entirely, and Musk’s DOGE has kept a skeleton crew in place.
Rubio insists that the reforms at USAID are not about “getting rid of foreign aid.”
“I think we’re going to be the most generous nation on Earth in a way that makes sense, that’s in our national interest,” Rubio said.
