OneAID Community Updates
- oneaidcommunity
- Apr 23
- 8 min read
April 23, 2025
Upcoming Events
⇨ Saturday, April 26, 3:00 pm ET: Friends of USIP Benefit Concert. Join Friends of USIP and support their legal fund. Special live performance by The Dellas. The concert will take place at 5223 5th St. NW, Washington, DC.
⇨ Thursday, May 1: National May Day Calls to Action. Rallies and protests to be held across the country. Find an event near you.
Take Action
⇨ Contact Your Representatives! The OneAID Community proudly supports the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition's #SaferStronger Weeks of Action for International Assistance. Join us in asking Congress to protect international programs that save lives and make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Your voice matters - take action here!
⇨ Topline Talking Points and a Congressional Engagement Toolkit are now available on our website.
Key Updates
● BREAKING: DOGE moves to shut down the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
● The 90-day freeze on foreign assistance, set to end on April 20, received a 30-day extension as Congress demands answers on foreign aid cuts and USAID dismantling, and the State Department starts responding to requests for information from Congress again on foreign assistance.
● On April 22, Secretary of State Marco Rubio released the State Department’s plans for reorganizing the Department, including closing 132 offices, moving or consolidating 137 offices, reducing personnel by 15%, and reportedly moving the remnants of USAID to sit within a new version of the Office of Foreign Assistance.
● Constitutional challenges to the dismantling of USAID are queueing up in U.S. District Courts across the country.
More details below…
Developing Story: Despite the foreign aid review extension, DOGE is shutting down the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)
● On April 22, despite the foreign aid review extension, staff at MCC — an independent U.S. foreign aid agency—were informed that DOGE intends to shut down the agency, per sources at MCC. MCC staff were told there will be a significant reduction in MCC personnel and all MCC programs will be closed.
● Similar to actions taken by DOGE to shut down other U.S. agencies, eligible MCC staff have been offered voluntary early retirement or deferred resignation options. Last week, a small group of DOGE staffers reportedly visited MCC.
● In March, Trump administration officials had circulated a draft proposal to restructure the U.S. foreign aid architecture, which included placing MCC under the auspices of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
Amid the foreign aid 90-day freeze extension, Congress demands answers on cuts and USAID dismantling, while State starts to respond to Hill requests again
● The Trump administration’s 90-day freeze on foreign assistance, which was scheduled to end on April 20, has reportedly been extended an additional 30 days, according to an internal State Department email cited by the media. It is unclear if the extension will result in more cuts.
● Despite the extension, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, submitted an audit request to the Government Accountability Office to analyze the foreign policy and national security consequences of President Trump’s foreign aid cuts and shutdown of USAID.
● According to sources familiar, the Department of State is now starting to respond to Requests for Information (RFIs) from Congress regarding Foreign Assistance—working through a backlog of hundreds of RFIs, as well as trying to respond to new requests.
○ This development follows months of almost no information being shared with Congress, as former Foreign Assistance Director Pete Marocco (who was fired last week) effectively silenced any communication with Congress on foreign assistance while he oversaw the extremely chaotic and destructive dismantling of the majority of U.S. foreign assistance.
Overview of Secretary Rubio’s plan to reorganize the State Department, including some remnants of USAID
● On April 22, Rubio’s reorg plan for the Department was released, which included closing 132 offices, moving or consolidating 137 offices, and tasking undersecretaries with reducing personnel by 15%. The plan applied exclusively to the Washington headquarters and did not lay out plans for reductions in embassies, consulates, or personnel around the world.
● The plan includes housing the remnants of USAID within a new version of the Office of Foreign Assistance, which will now be called the Office of the Coordinator for Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs. It is unclear what or how the Agency’s work or personnel will be transitioned or saved.
● At a time when conflict and violent extremism are on the rise globally, which has significant impacts on the U.S., the plan also eliminates the Office of Conflict Stabilization Operations (CSO) and the Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ); personnel within these offices will receive Reduction in Force (RIF) notices in 60 days or less if their positions are being eliminated, while some personnel may be moved to other offices.
● Multiple aspects of this proposal require Congressional notification and consultation, while the full dismantling of USAID and movement of agency functions into the State Department requires legislation to be passed by Congress.
○ A Consult Note was only sent to Congress by the State Department at approximately 9:50 am on April 22, just before the release of the plan within the Department and publicly.
● If Secretary Rubio and the State Department proceed through proper and legal channels to carry out this reorganization, the Trump Administration will still be legally required to obligate and spend the billions of dollars in Congressionally-appropriated foreign assistance funds.
Constitutional challenges to USAID’s dismantling are queueing up in U.S. District Courts
● On April 18, plaintiffs in the Does 1-26 v Musk case amended their complaint to bring a class action on behalf of all current USAID employees, and to add additional defendants including President Trump, Secretary Rubio, Department of State, USAID, Pete Marocco, Ken Jackson, Jeremy Lewin, and Amy Gleason.
○ The amended complaint alleges that the actions taken by DOGE and Musk to dismantle USAID violate the Appointments Clause of the Constitution ( and Constitutional separation of powers principles.
○ It requests that the Court declare unlawful the actions taken by the Defendants to dismantle the Agency, and prevent Defendants from taking any further actions to unlawfully modify, reorganize or eliminate USAID unless and until these actions are authorized by Congress.
● In the AFGE, AFSA, Oxfam v Trump case, the plaintiffs filed their response in support of their motion for summary judgment on April 21. The brief argues that the Government’s actions to dismantle USAID violate the Administrative Procedures Act, appropriations and other laws, as well as Constitutional separation of powers principles, and seeks an injunction preventing the Government from taking further action to shut down USAID unless authorized by Congress. The brief also noted that in similar cases involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the US Agency for Global Media, the courts have issued similar injunctions preventing the Government from proceeding with similar reductions in force until the constitutionality of Agency dismantling is reviewed by the courts. The final brief from Defendants in support of their motion to dismiss the case before May 5, after which Judge Nichols will review all filings and decide the merits of the arguments made by both sides.
This Week’s Impacts
American Economy and Jobs
● Confirmed Job Losses: 19,003 Americans have lost their jobs, been furloughed, or placed on administrative leave. 171,818 jobs globally have been lost as of April 15, 2025.
Climate and Environment
● The Trump administration cancelled USAID’s interagency agreements with NASA for joint SERVIR programs, which help countries predict and manage disasters, water shortages, flooding, and other weather-related threats. Other programs terminated were working to conserve biodiversity, combat wildlife trafficking, and promote natural resource governance worldwide.
Health
● The U.S. had been the largest donor to health programs in low- and middle-income countries. A new study estimates the following impacts on global health from 2025 to 2040 as a result of the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID:
○ 15.2 (9.3-20.8) million additional AIDS-related deaths
○ 2.2 (1.5-1.9) million additional TB-related deaths
○ 7.9 million additional child deaths from other causes
○ 40-55 million additional unplanned pregnancies
○ 12-16 million unsafe abortions
● In Zambia, people living with HIV are struggling to find medication following the Trump administration’s funding cuts. The U.S. played a pivotal role in controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic, decreasing new infections in Zambia by approximately 40% over the past 15 years.
● In Chad, the Trump administration cancelled a USAID partnership with Yale to help the Government of Chad establish the first National Institute of Public Health. This would have enabled Chad to respond to public health threats without relying on external assistance, and would have traine epidemiologists and laboratory specialists to monitor malaria, dengue, and antimicrobial resistance and vaccine efficiency.
● In Laos, Trump administration funding cuts to HIV/AIDS programs have significantly impacted maternal and child health programs. This reduction has led to major challenges in capacity-building efforts, limited training opportunities for healthcare providers, and reduced plans for integrating maternal and child health services into point-of-care sites.
Humanitarian Assistance
● In Nigeria, children's lives are at risk as five stabilization centers for malnourished children are on the verge of closing due to the Trump administration’s funding cuts.
● In Sudan, the civil war entered its second year this month, with the country having the highest number of internally displaced people in the world—11.5 million—and 24.6 million people facing acute food insecurity. Sudanese women and children face the brunt of USAID cuts.
○ Major disruptions to soup kitchens under the Emergency Response Rooms (ERR)—local community and volunteer-run initiatives—are continuing to have a devastating effect on food assistance operations. While the Trump administration has stated it is continuing humanitarian assistance to Sudan, the overall reduction in funding and the general chaos of frozen payments since February has forced some ERR-organized kitchens to close. In Khartoum alone, nearly half of the 746 kitchens remain closed as of mid-April.
● In Afghanistan, lifesaving humanitarian health services continue to shut down. As a result of the Trump administration’s funding cuts, 439 health facilities operated by humanitarian actors have now closed, affecting an estimated 3.09 million people.
● In Yemen, a merchant ship full of U.S. wheat set sail for the port of Aden from Oregon in early April. Due to the Trump administration’s canceling of contracts with USAID partners, there are no organizations on-the-ground authorized to receive the wheat, store it and ensure that it gets distributed to people in Yemen, where 17.1 million people are food insecure.
○ While the State Department is reportedly considering options for the wheat, it is not clear whether the ship might shift paths mid-journey and head to a new final destination, or if the wheat on the ship may be unloaded in southern Yemen before being sent to a different country—options that would incur additional U.S. taxpayer funding.
● In Colombia, the Trump administration’s funding cuts are expected to severely affect populations affected by armed conflict, human mobility, and climate hazards:
○ Protection risks are expected to increase—particularly in areas affected by the presence of non-state armed groups—such as child recruitment, gender-based violence, landmine contamination, forced displacement, and mobility restrictions.
○ There is limited access to safe water and sanitation for at-risk populations and is expected to reduce humanitarian responders’ ability to respond to new emergencies, including climate-related floods and displacement events. The scaling down of services increases the risk of waterborne disease outbreaks, especially in overcrowded informal settlements and transit areas with high population mobility.
○ The suspension of humanitarian, peacebuilding, and development nexus-related programs—such as rural development, economic recovery, and
peacebuilding—will have long-term implications, as many community-based organisations lost access to USAID funding, undermining locally-led efforts.
Education and Youth Development
● Investments in youth programming yield long-term dividends across peacebuilding, civic participation and economic resilience. In the absence of U.S. funding, the youth development sector is likely to experience: fewer youth in training, reduced civic engagement, increased youth unemployment, health setbacks, weakened civil society, and knowledge-loss.
Additional Resources for Information and Messaging
● U.S. Foreign Aid Updates by Foreign Policy for America
● DOGE Cuts by City, State, and Congressional District by Center for American Progress
● The Impact Map provides data on policy, funding, workforce changes, and local effects
● Musk Watch Doge Tracker of what is being cut and who is being impacted