Key Points on USAID
- oneaidcommunity
- Mar 14
- 5 min read
March 14, 2025
Key Updates
The Senate is likely to advance a continuing resolution on Friday that undermines international assistance and gives away much of Congress’s "power of the purse" to the executive branch.
The Trump Administration and DOGE continue to gut the government and obfuscate: After DOGE illegally dismantled U.S. foreign assistance agencies, this model is now being applied to other agencies. Documents the government provided in the Does v. Musk case raise as many questions about who ordered what as they answer.
Courts provide some checks to overreach with latest orders to reinstate probationary federal employees, while other requests for payment and relief are still pending. AFSA and AFGE, now with Oxfam, are renewing efforts to block the Trump administration from dismantling USAID itself. Most USAID staff remain in limbo, with recent evacuees from overseas posts owed thousands of dollars.
Keep calling your senators and representatives.
Use the OneAID call script to demand your representatives vote NO on the Continuing Resolution that not only undermines international assistance, but doesn't even guarantee how the money will be spent. Directly contradicting Article 1 of the Constitution, this unprecedented measure would give away Congress’s "power of the purse" to defer to the executive branch.
More details below…
Senate to Advance Continuing Resolution on Friday, with Requisite Number of Democrats Planning to Vote for Cloture
Today, March 14, the Senate plans to take up a House-passed bill to fund the government through September, avoiding a government shutdown with funding expiring at 11:59 pm. Republicans need 60 votes to invoke cloture (definition: limiting debate on a measure of a matter) and advance the measure and allow a final vote on passage.
Senator Schumer said on Thursday night that he would vote for cloture and had reportedly lined up enough other Democratic votes to allow the Republican bill to pass (New York Times). On Monday, Democrats had introduced an alternative, shorter-term resolution, criticizing “Speaker Johnson’s slush fund continuing resolution” as “empower[ing] President Trump and Elon Musk to pick winners and losers with taxpayer dollars”, as it “shortchanges families and includes painful funding cuts for bipartisan domestic priorities like cancer research, Army Corps projects, and much more.” (House)
Constituents are urging their elected leaders to vote against cloture and against the current budget resolution, which fails to put into place safeguards to hold the Trump administration accountable in the wake of its major violations of Congress’s power of the purse as it was drafted without Democratic input and fails to protect foreign aid funding that benefits their states. (NPR)
The bill also cuts almost $1B of the District of Columbia’s budget, which is funded by D.C.’s own taxpayer dollars. (The Hill)
The Trump Administration and DOGE Continue to Gut the Government
After DOGE illegally dismantled U.S. foreign assistance agencies, this model is now being applied to other agencies.
The Department of Education and IRS seem to be next on the list after objectives for USAID were achieved (see: Project 2025 Tracker), with DOGE proposing to downsize the IRS by 20 percent in the middle of tax season. (CNN, WaPo)
On March 13, the Government defendants in the Does v. Musk case produced a number of redacted emails and other documents in response to Plaintiff’s request for documents explaining the authority under which a number of recent decisions were taken, including several rounds of placing staff on administrative leave, the shutdown of USAID headquarters, and the termination of nearly 800 personal services contractors.
The responses were widely noted as being problematic, both in terms of their timing–as some documents purported to explain who authorized decisions were dated after the decision occurred–and in terms of whether they were actually responsive to the Judge’s information requests, as some only showed that a decision had been implemented, not who ordered it. (Anna Bower, Lawfare)
The Trump administration continues to misrepresent their dismantling of USAID as a sincere effort to consider and retain valuable programs. In reality:
Only after the Trump administration’s February 26 court filing claiming Rubio had “individually reviewed” each program and determined whether terminating it was in the country’s “national interest” did the government instruct USAID staff and implementing partners to complete a “foreign assistance review” survey assessing their programs against the administration’s priorities.
Before the survey’s March 11 deadline, Secretary Rubio tweeted that the review was officially over and that USAID was retaining 1,000 programs while cutting 5,200. Since then, the USAID staff assigned to review awards, including those already canceled, were instructed to make sure the number of awards they cancel match Rubio’s tweet. Per a USAID staff member involved in the review: “After going through this exercise to really demonstrate why a lot of this stuff contributes to saving lives, and have it dismissed as saying: ‘Well, we’ve got a target that was determined by a tweet, and we have to hit that benchmark?’ It’s not a good look.” (Devex)
Courts Provide Some Checks to Overreach with Latest Orders to Reinstate Probationary Staff, Other Relief Still Pending
Employees from several agencies have received additional relief from the courts, including in a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions. On March 13, U.S. District Judge Alsup ordered the Trump administration to “immediately” reinstate all fired probationary employees in the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury, and Agriculture. (New Republic)
Later on March 13, in a lawsuit brought by Democratic state attorneys general, a second federal judge ordered the mass reinstatement of probationary federal workers fired by the Trump administration from 18 agencies. (NPR)
On March 13, Judge Nichols issued an order setting up a schedule for AFSA and AFGE’s motion for summary judgment that stretches into early May, with the Government’s brief in support of their motion to dismiss the case due on May 5. AFSA and AFGE have now added Oxfam to their suit and this week argued that the effort to decimate USAID violates Constitutional separation of powers as well as the statute establishing USAID and appropriations law, which requires Congressional approval before initiating any reorganization. (GovExec)
However, most USAID staff remain stuck in limbo. For example, the U.S. government reportedly still owes a cumulative $400,000 in payments to a group of USAID employees evacuated from the Congo. One USAID official describes escaping violence in an emergency evacuation and the difficult return to the United States amid leadership turmoil and limited support from their government employer. Responding to Trump administration criticisms that USAID workers are anti-American, this worker said, “We love America more than anybody. We love it so much we’re trying to export the ideas of America to the Congo, which is a difficult assignment even by USAID standards.” (ABC)
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Happening Next Week
Wednesday, March 19 Atlantic Council Event: Director of Foreign Assistance, and key architect of USAID’s dismantling, Pete Marocco, speaks to “The Future of U.S. Foreign Aid and Global Development” in a fireside chat moderated by Atlantic Council president Fred Kempe.
Consistent Topline Messages (Talking Points)
Preserving Foreign Assistance as a U.S. Foreign Policy Tool
An effort from the Trump administration and Congress to reform and streamline U.S. foreign assistance is welcome, however, the current approach is not a serious reform effort: it is an ineffective, sloppy power grab that is—unintentionally or not—destroying U.S foreign assistance apparatus and depriving the U.S. of a critical soft-power tool. Foreign assistance keeps us safer here at home while demonstrating American generosity and saving millions of lives worldwide.
This flawed power grab is evident in the broken waiver process, which lacked clear procedures and failed to operate effectively, as well as the cancellation of over 10,000 State and USAID contracts, some of which had already been granted waivers.
Despite the Administration’s claims, even life-saving and critical national security projects approved for waivers by Secretary Rubio have not received funding. This stems from rushed, careless efforts to alter USAID’s financial system (Phoenix), rendering it non-operational and incapable of processing payments. This includes efforts to stem an Ebola outbreak that could infect Americans, HIV prevention and treatment, and sensitive work in conflict zones.
The Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID has left the U.S. without the systems, experienced personnel, or partners necessary to responsibly and strategically implement foreign assistance.
Americans agree: foreign assistance is a powerful U.S. soft-power tool, and 89 percent of Americans support spending at least 1 percent of our federal budget on foreign aid. For this reason, Congress must halt these illegal actions by DOGE and instead implement a more strategic, sensible reform effort that restores the legislative branch’s important oversight function.
USAID: The first, but not the last
USAID is the playbook for President Trump and Elon Musk’s plan for a rapid and potentially illegal overhaul of the U.S. Government without required Congressional approval and oversight for agencies codified by statute. Reform is welcome, but what DOGE is doing is not reform, it is taking a sledgehammer to destroy a vital tool of U.S. national security.
Rep. Bacon (R-NE) underscored this in his comments to the Wall Street Journal: “[USAID was] funding a lot of stupid stuff—that’s a fact. But they’re also doing a lot of good stuff too. So you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead of taking a sledgehammer, let’s get out the scalpel.”
Some Republican Senators have joined their Democratic colleagues in expressing alarm over the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze and gutting of USAID. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Susan Collins (R-ME) wrote to Secretary Rubio stating they believe the State Department is acting unlawfully by failing to notify and consult Congress during the process.
Instead of undertaking a reform effort—working closely with Congress as is required by law—DOGE has taken a “burn it all down” approach, including mass firings and major infringements on Congress’s power of the purse. This may work for tech firms, but it is a dangerous approach for government institutions that must remain accountable to taxpayers, enforce and follow laws, and deliver public goods.
Additional Resources for Information and Messaging
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