Who is John Barsa, the new head of USAID?

WASHINGTON — Leadership of the nation’s bilateral aid agency will fall to someone relatively unknown to the U.S. development community in the midst of an unprecedented global health crisis. “Since the impeachment, there's been a huge focus on Trump loyalty, and he definitely has a claim to that.” --— Anonymous U.S. development official The White House’s surprise decision Tuesday to designate John Barsa as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development when Mark Green steps down in April caught agency staff, aid advocates, and partners mostly off guard. Barsa, currently the assistant administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean and a former Department of Homeland Security official, is now faced with leading the agency through a period of high stress and uncertainty as the COVID-19 outbreak poses unpredictable challenges around the world. As acting administrator, Barsa will lead the agency until the administration nominates — and Congress confirms — a permanent replacement for Green. Given the time that process usually takes, it is unlikely a permanent administrator will be appointed before the November presidential election. The White House’s decision to designate Barsa for the role — instead of elevating the current deputy administrator, Bonnie Glick — was initially met with concern and some resistance from U.S. aid advocates, who worried about uncertain leadership at a moment of crisis. Barsa is also well-connected within the Trump administration, which has proven generally hostile toward U.S. foreign aid programs. People who know or have worked with Barsa — and who spoke to Devex about him — painted a more nuanced picture of someone who might bring political and managerial advantages to the role, despite lacking traditional international development experience. “He's not a development guy. I don't think he understands how [USAID] really works. He's very political, though, and he understands DC political issues [and] personalities very well,” one U.S. development professional wrote to Devex on the condition of anonymity. Barsa served on President Donald Trump’s transition team after the election, and he has been active in Republican politics for years. “Since the impeachment, there's been a huge focus on Trump loyalty, and he definitely has a claim to that. He also knows many of the top administration people going way back to Republican campaigns,” the development professional told Devex. “It might be politically good for USAID. Not in the development sense, but right now, [the agency is] not on the radar, and many of the very senior [administration] people hate foreign aid. Barsa would give [USAID] the political credentials that might be needed to get in the door,” the source added. Barsa’s experience at the Department of Homeland Security, as well as his role in the post-election transition, set him apart as someone who knows how to work through the interagency process, and who might be able to elevate USAID’s role within it, said Ana Quintana, a friend of Barsa’s who leads Latin American policy efforts at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington. “If you’re trying to elevate your agency, if you’re trying to elevate the work that you’re doing, and the people in your agency — highlight the relationships that you have,” Quintana said. “They were looking for somebody who can actually be a manager and had proven management skills.” --— Ana Quintana, lead of Latin American policy efforts, The Heritage Foundation “I don’t think that he does it for his own personal advancement. If that was the case, stay at DHS and rise up the ranks, because that’s kind of the lane ... that he’s more comfortable with,” she added. In addition to his own personal ties, Barsa has worked on a portfolio of issues at USAID that have been central to the administration’s international priorities. The White House has taken a keen interest in USAID’s ability to contribute to some of the administration’s key — and controversial — foreign policy goals, including efforts to stem migration from Central America and a so-far unsuccessful campaign to accelerate regime change in Venezuela. That has led to a rise in profile for Barsa’s team, at a time when the White House has questioned the value of other global development programs. “John has focused on the President's priorities of promoting democracy, standing up to tyranny, and advancing our national security and economic interests in the Western Hemisphere,” Green wrote in a statement congratulating Barsa on the appointment. For some development experts, Barsa’s close association with the Trump administration’s political priorities is far from a good thing. Justin Sandefur, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, charged on Twitter that as part of Trump’s “landing team” at the Homeland Security, Barsa was part of an effort to strip funding for countering violent extremism from Muslim groups. Sandefur also pointed to Barsa’s recent involvement in creating a memorandum of understanding between USAID and U.S. Customs and Border Protection aimed at providing USAID with “point-of-origin information from irregular migrants for the purposes of better targeting development initiatives to those communities with high rates of migration.” “Up to now, USAID's budget and professional integrity have been amazingly sheltered from Trump's broader assault on America's foreign policy apparatus (kudos to Mark Green and some GOP senators for that). Let's hope both continue to be true,” Sandefur wrote. According to Quintana, Barsa has overseen recent improvements in staff morale within a USAID bureau that was known for high employee turnover. “LAC was the bureau that people did not want to work at,” Quintana said. “From what I’ve been told by some of my friends on the career side, that is something that has changed within some of the rankings recently … under John,” she added, referring to internal surveys that gauge USAID employees’ job satisfaction. A current USAID employee who shared views with Devex anonymously agreed that morale has improved — and that the LAC bureau has seemed more important under this administration than the last. Quintana suggested that those morale improvements might have influenced the decision to elevate Barsa to acting administrator. “They were looking for somebody who can actually be a manager and had proven management skills,” she said. The U.S. development professional said that Barsa, “seems willing to listen to staff, even if he doesn't initially agree.” With the COVID-19 outbreak now poised to become a central focus for USAID and its partners, Quintana said that Barsa’s previous experience with disaster management was another distinguishing factor in the White House’s decision to pick him. Barsa was deployed to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. While the Trump administration has drawn heavy criticism for that response effort, Barsa garnered some unlikely praise from one of the president’s fiercest detractors. In an October 2017 interview, more than a month after the hurricane struck Puerto Rico, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz singled out Barsa for playing a constructive role in an otherwise inadequate U.S. government relief effort. Cruz noted that the then-Secretary of Homeland Security, “left John Barsa here to be our connection with FEMA; he’s from Homeland Security — things got better.” Given his close association with the Trump administration, as well as some Twitter posts from over a decade ago that took personal jabs at Democratic politicians, Barsa gives the impression of a more aggressively partisan personality than outgoing administrator Green. “Was on the Hill the other day and couldn't see Pelosi's reflection when she walked in front of a mirror,” Barsa wrote in a 2009 tweet, appearing to insult the top Democrat in the House of Representatives. Barsa’s account has been made private since the announcement of his new role, and more recent posts suggest he has considerably toned down his public political statements. Quintana told Devex that while it is true that Barsa has strong opinions, those should not be taken as a sign of rudeness or meanness. “This is just somebody who is genuinely kind, genuinely humble, and actually really looks out for his people,” she said. Quintana said that some of the criticism of Barsa she has heard so far has been, “more about — ‘let’s attack this Trump administration official who we don’t understand’ — rather than thinking, ‘how can we use this guy as a vessel to advance the mission of our agency and the things that we believe in.’” The current USAID staff member told Devex that Barsa, “has always been a straight shooter. You know where you stand.”