Democrats introduce new legislation to protect USAID

New legislation introduced Tuesday in the U.S. Congress seeks to protect the U.S. Agency for International Development amid the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle and defund the agency. The Protect U.S. National Security Act would require that any reform or reorganization of USAID be done in accordance with existing laws, and in a manner that maintains U.S. soft power and prevents adversaries and competitors from filling the void. It reiterates that only an act of Congress can eliminate USAID. The bill also prohibits any funding from being used to eliminate USAID as an independent agency, dismantle it, or have it be subsumed by another department. It would also require that the secretary of state certify annually, for the next five years, that it was complying with the law. “Eliminating USAID will be a death sentence for millions of people,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs, a Democrat from California, who authored the bill. “People will starve, babies will die, and poverty will skyrocket. Not to mention, Elon Musk’s elimination of USAID is completely illegal. That’s why I’m proud to introduce legislation to prohibit the use of any funds to eliminate USAID. This organization is vital to America’s soft power to win people and communities over with assistance, not coercion, and we can’t lose that.” Jacobs is the ranking member, or top Democrat, on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, which oversees USAID, foreign assistance, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and global health. About a dozen Democrats joined as cosponsors of the Protect U.S. National Security Act. Democrats are the minority party in both houses of Congress so the fate of the bill is unclear, but the odds likely aren’t great, especially with some Republicans in Congress voicing their disdain for USAID and their support for the administration’s actions related to the agency. Last week, a separate bill was introduced to do the opposite of Jacobs’ bill. Rep. Greg Steube, a Republican from Florida, introduced a bill to abolish USAID and halt all federal funding to the agency. It would rescind funds that had not yet been obligated and transfer USAID’s “assets and essential responsibilities” to the State Department. “It’s time to put America first,” Steube said in a statement. “We cannot afford to continue pouring money into an unaccountable bureaucracy that prioritizes global bureaucrats and political pet projects over the needs of hardworking Americans. My bill ends USAID’s wasteful operations and redirects taxpayer dollars toward strengthening our nation’s priorities.”