According to an internal email sent to staffers Tuesday evening viewed by 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. 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.
As Elon Musk’s DOGE team continues its efforts to dismantle the US government’s primary agency for distributing foreign aid, its overseas employees are stuck in limbo. 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.
Both in the US and abroad, some USAID employees’ email and systems access have been abruptly cut off, making it harder to get official information about what might happen next. “Everybody is rightfully very concerned for our overseas staff that are essentially just being left stranded,” a current USAID employee in the US told WIRED. “We’re not sure how we’re going to get them home safe.”
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.
On Tuesday afternoon, USAID employees still connected to their email accounts received notice that the agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters would remain closed for the remainder of the week, according to a copy of the message reviewed by WIRED. Some received a memo from Marocco indicating that they had been placed on administrative leave “until otherwise notified.”
USAID did not respond to requests for comment. The State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
About 10,000 people work for USAID, roughly two-thirds of whom are stationed overseas, according to the US Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan policy research group that serves Congress (the figure excludes “institutional support” contractors). The agency has more than 60 regional and country missions and represents less than 1 percent of the total US federal budget overall.
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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. He added that perhaps some groups were “deliberately sabotaging” the process to make “a political point.”