Senior USAID officials put on leave amid fallout from executive order

On Monday, the U.S. Agency for International Development was hit by another aftershock: Nearly 60 senior executives at the agency were placed on administrative leave, along with select senior foreign service officers, deputy assistant administrators, and eight of USAID’s general counsel, including both ethics attorneys. “We have identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President’s Executive Orders and the mandate from the American people,” Jason Gray, the agency’s acting administrator, wrote in an email seen exclusively by Devex. “As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions.” Several of those staff members were forced to leave the USAID building immediately, two sources told Devex. They all lost access to the central Ronald Reagan Building, and while some were escorted from the building, others couldn’t get back inside after being out when the announcement was made. The news follows a week of turmoil at USAID, with U.S. President Donald Trump issuing an executive order to pause all U.S. foreign assistance last week. That move was followed by a stop-work order for existing grants and contracts, along with an immediate halt to new foreign aid spending. Now, it seems the agency’s leadership is the next in line — some of whom have over 20 years of experience. “The aggregation of these actions seem to lead to no longer having a USAID,” said Marcia Wong, the former deputy assistant administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. Though it is not clear how long the administrative leave will last, one source told Devex that it was “effective immediately” on Monday afternoon. This marks the latest in a series of staff changes across USAID. Many of the agency’s institutional support contractors have already been, or are expected to be, let go — a shift that affects more than 50% of the workforce in the global health bureau, a source with knowledge of the situation told Devex. The Office of Personnel Management has also compiled a list of employees, primarily those in probationary periods or excepted service positions with fewer than two years under their belt. While the purpose of the list remains unclear, some suspect they will be asked loyalty-related questions, a source familiar with the matter told Devex. Some of these moves were telegraphed in the Project 2025 blueprint, which called for rapid staffing reforms at the agency and said that the administration's agenda for USAID was “undercut from the outset both by recalcitrant career personnel and by inexperienced political personnel” in the first administration. But for many, it’s still a shock — as years of experience are being removed from the agency’s ranks. Earlier on Monday, more than 20 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging him to reverse the “purge” of the workforce at both the State Department and USAID. “The potential gutting of institutional knowledge, credibility, and core competencies at the Department as a result of these reckless and short-sighted decisions cannot be understated and will undermine your ability to serve effectively as Secretary,” the congressmembers wrote. USAID did not immediately respond to a request for comment.