Thousands gather in Washington to protest the dismantling of USAID

Thousands gathered outside the American Capitol on Wednesday to protest the dismantling of U.S. Agency for International Development — an agency that just three weeks ago was the largest bilateral donor in the world. “The attempts to kill USAID will kill people,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior official at the agency who now heads Refugees International. “They will kill people that America has committed to save.” Konyndyk was joined at the podium by 18 Democratic members of Congress and four senior USAID staff members. They’d been brought to the Capitol by Friends of Foreign Aid, a grassroots coalition of senior foreign service members, USAID staffers, and others. One by one, the speakers took the microphone — and one by one, the chorus of cries before them grew louder. “Let them work” chanted the crowd of 3,000, many of whom were USAID staffers who had been suspended, furloughed, or placed on administrative leave. “Do something,” they urged members of Congress. Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, laid out what they had planned. First, he said, they would stand behind the move recently announced by Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, who has said he would place a “blanket hold” on President Donald Trump’s State Department nominees to protest the USAID shutdown. Booker said he and his Democratic colleagues would “not cooperate” when it came to those nominees, and that they would fight USAID’s absorption into State “in every way” they could. “We will fight legally, we will fight procedurally, and we will also fight legislatively,” Booker said. “We will stand up. We will speak up. We will rise up.” “To have that sacrifice, and the decades that he spent overseas serving the American people and just trying to help others, being denigrated by our own government is really just devastating.” --— Megan Foley, whose father was a former USAID staffer killed by al-Qaida while on a USAID assignment in Jordan Others expanded further. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, said the congressmembers were pushing five lawsuits forward, one of which focused on protecting federal workers like those at USAID. Rep. Sara Jacobs, a Democrat from California, said she would be introducing legislation this week to “push back on Elon Musk’s illegal takeover” of USAID. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, pushed for more protests and action, stating the congressmembers were going to be “doing this at every level.” Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat from Colorado, said they will continue to litigate, organize, and communicate — especially during Congress’ appropriations and budgeting process. “Let’s be clear. This is illegal and it is a coup,” Jacobs told the crowd. “But joke’s on them because who knows better how to work in an authoritarian country than all of you?” The remark got cheers from across the crowd. But for many, it felt like it was far too late. Thousands at the agency have already been suspended, terminated, and placed on administrative leave; thousands more will be severed from USAID by the end of the week. Trump’s stop-work order — which froze billions of dollars in U.S. assistance on Jan. 24 — has also had a trickle-down effect on organizations, companies, and grassroots groups. Friends of Foreign Aid estimates that nearly 52,000 American jobs and more than 100,000 global jobs will be lost as a result. Amy Uccello was one of those affected. She told Devex she had worked at USAID for a decade before she was terminated while on maternity leave — with no cause, no severance, and just two days of health insurance. Atul Gawande, USAID’s former head of global health, was another. He likened the abrupt shuttering of the agency to trying to dismantle a plane while it’s in mid-flight. Megan Foley, who was also at the rally, told Devex about her father: a former USAID staffer who was killed by al-Qaida while on a USAID assignment in Jordan. “To have that sacrifice, and the decades that he spent overseas serving the American people and just trying to help others, being denigrated by our own government is really just devastating,” Foley said. “Our democracy … is on life support. … In fact, it is in hospice.” --— Rep. Lateefah Simon, a Democrat from California On top of that, the protestors’ fear was palpable. Many wore face masks and dark sunglasses, fearing rumors that facial recognition software would be used to pick them out from the crowd. Others left their phones at home, worried about being tracked and later blacklisted from federal government jobs. “Not to be paranoid,” one USAID staffer told me. “But our agency is getting targeted.” With a minority in Congress, the Democratic lawmakers called for their Republican counterparts to do something, even though many have come out in support of Marco Rubio’s latest moves to merge USAID into the State Department. On Monday, Rubio — who is currently serving as both secretary of state and USAID acting administrator — told Congress that the agency may “move, reorganize, and integrate certain missions, bureaus and offices,” into State, while the “remainder of [USAID] may be abolished consistent with applicable law.” Those at the protest repeatedly stated that such a move was illegal and that because Congress created USAID in 1961, Congress was the only entity that could dissolve it. Despite that, the Trump administration has continued carving away at the agency, slicing away staff, programs, and operations day by day. “Our democracy, and I hope you all agree with me, is on life support,” said Rep. Lateefah Simon, a Democrat from California. “In fact, it is in hospice.”