Nearly 16 months since the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and terminated thousands of dedicated federal workers, the ramifications are still being felt personally and professionally.
One of President Trump’s first orders after being sworn into office last January was to immediately freeze all foreign development assistance programs. Four days later, the State Department suspended nearly all existing foreign aid programs and paused any future aid. The administration then moved quickly to cancel thousands of foreign aid contracts and terminate nearly all of USAID’s 16,000 employees, most of whom worked overseas.
Many of those former employees have yet to receive the benefits they are owed – including retirement benefits, annuity payments, and other earned benefits – creating “a serious financial hardship for affected employees and their families,” American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a June 29 letter sent to members of Congress.
“Many employees were forced into retirement with little warning and have spent months navigating delays in retirement processing and benefits administration. Some have depleted savings, incurred debt, or struggled to meet basic expenses while awaiting benefits they earned through years of federal service. No public servant should face financial insecurity because of administrative failures associated with a workforce reduction,” Kelley wrote.
The impact of the USAID cuts extends far beyond the financial impact on individual employees, Kelley said.
“The loss of experienced professionals and technical expertise has weakened the government's ability to deliver foreign assistance programs, respond to humanitarian crises, support democratic governance, and advance U.S. national security interests,” he wrote.
Some of these former employees traveled to Capitol Hill last week to advocate for restoring the foreign assistance and aid that was cut, as part of an action organized by the nonprofit coalition Alliance 4 American Leadership.
Kelley urged Congress to conduct oversight hearings into how the USAID cuts were carried out and the impact on foreign assistance programs, investigate delays in employees getting the benefits they are owed, require greater transparency and input from Congress before undertaking large-scale workforce restructuring actions, restore the government’s ability to effectively carry out its foreign assistance and development missions overseas, and protect and strengthen collective bargaining rights and labor-management partnerships across the federal government.
“We respectfully request that Congress exercise its oversight responsibilities and pursue reforms that strengthen both the federal workforce and the institutions that serve the American people,” he wrote.
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