U.S. State Department puts ‘all direct hire’ USAID personnel on administrative leave – WIRED

All direct hire personnel at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) “will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs" on Friday, February 7, WIRED reported citing an internal email sent to USAID staffers Tuesday evening.

The email noted that USAID “would arrange and pay for return travel to the United States within 30 days” for overseas workers, and that it would consider travel extensions on a case-by-case basis.

Workers at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are stationed in dozens of different countries around the world, but reports from ABC and CBS News indicate that the majority will be imminently summoned back to the United States.

WIRED has seen internal information showing that USAID leadership attempted to compile a list of overseas employees worldwide on Monday. On Tuesday, Pete Marocco, the State Department’s newly appointed foreign assistance director tapped to oversee USAID, convened with senior State Department leaders and instructed them to bring all overseas employees back to the US, according to CBS News. The news outlet also reported that Marocco said he would evacuate staff with support from the US military if necessary.

U.S. President Donald Trump froze all US foreign aid shortly after he took office last month. His administration later clarified that programs carrying out lifesaving work such as providing medical and food assistance could receive humanitarian waivers to continue, but a number of organizations around the world say that the process has been mired in confusion and chaos. Even vital HIV and AIDS prevention work has been stymied, WIRED reported Monday.

Earlier today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who took acting control of USAID on Monday, speculated that if aid organizations had any misunderstandings, that was a reflection of their incompetence. “If some organization is receiving funds from the United States and does not know how to apply a waiver, then I have real questions about the competence of that organization,” Rubio said.