Former USAID employees on cuts: 'We are going to put lives in jeopardy'

Two former employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), who were fired last month, told CNN the 83 percent spending cuts Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday would "put lives in jeopardy."

“I think that when we’re talking about lifesaving aid programs, saying we’re going to cut 83 percent of USAID’s program, we are going to put lives in jeopardy," Linden Yee, a former employee of the agency, told CNN on Monday.

"There’s no way that is not going to harm millions of people’s lives,” she added.

Rubio announced the scale of the expected cuts to USAID earlier in the morning.

“After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID,” Rubio wrote on the social platform X.

Rubio said the canceled commitments in some cases “harmed” the U.S. national interest.

“The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” he said.

Yee and Benjamin Thompson, another former USAID employee, pushed back on the suggestion that their work at USAID negatively affected American interests.

“The underlying assumption to Rubio’s statement is that these programs are full of what they’re referring to as ‘waste, fraud and abuse.’ If that were actually the case, if that were their genuine intention, they would’ve gone about this in a very different way," Thompson said.

"They would’ve worked with existing personnel, they would have worked with the inspector general to review our programs, our funding streams,” he added.

Yee and Thompson, who were let go last month as part of the Trump administration's mass firings at the foreign aid agency, had worked at USAID for two years and are engaged to be married.

Yee said her contract was terminated with only five minutes' notice, leaving her no time to inform her close colleagues, which resulted in several tasks being left incomplete.

“It is not the way we would have wanted to go about closing these programs down,” she added.

According to Thompson, he was given a brief time to collect his belongings from his office as security personnel looked on.

“It was very clearly meant to intimidate, to threaten, which just seemed wildly out of place and inappropriate,” he said.

Meanwhile, Friends of USAID, a volunteer-run newsletter supported by some USAID staff, accused the administration of failing to conduct a proper review of the programs it is cutting.

“USAID Missions around the world spent the weekend working around the clock — at the Administration’s request — drafting program descriptions to explain what we do and why it matters. We woke up Monday morning to find out the decisions have already been made, before we ever had a chance to turn anything in,” the authors wrote.

“Please explain how this is a fair, transparent, or thorough review."

Topics

More NOAA Employees May Be Let Go, Making 20% of Staff Cut

Together with recent firings and resignations, the new cuts could hamper the National Weather Service’s ability to produce lifesaving forecasts, scientists say.
The New York Times - 4h
USAid cuts could create untreatable TB bug ‘resistant to everything we have’

Projects to detect, treat and research new ways to fight TB among those disrupted by sudden funding freeze . Dangerous new forms of tuberculosis (TB) for which there is no treatment could emerge as ...
The Guardian - 10h
Malnutrition food product sees funding affected by USAID cuts

Plumpynut is a life-saving food product that can bring a malnourished child back to health in just weeks. But the Trump administration's cuts to USAID essentially canceled funding to two American ...
CBS News - 2d
World Health Organization warns of possible tuberculosis surge because of USAID cuts

Health authorities say that the Trump administration’s gutting of USAID raises the risk of a global surge in tuberculosis cases and deaths.
NBC News - 1d
The big idea: should we abolish art?

Down with expensive trophies at art fairs: it’s time to reclaim a more radical vision of creativity. Some of us will go to an art gallery this weekend. Maybe it will help us reflect or inspire us. ...
The Guardian - 9h
Arsenal v Liverpool: Women’s FA Cup quarter-final – live

Updates from the 2.30pm GMT kick-off at Meadow Park Email Dominic | Get our women’s football newsletter Here we go then, as the whistle from referee Stacey Pearson gets us going at a ...
The Guardian - 1d
NOAA to potentially cut more than 1,000 additional employees

NOAA previously fired 880 employees on Feb. 27, the majority of which were probationary staff with fewer than two years in their positions.
CBS News - 1d
Aid operations in Gaza imperiled as millions of promised USAID dollars do not arrive

The Trump administration’s cuts to USAID have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in contractual payments to aid groups, leaving them paying out of pocket to preserve the fragile Gaza ceasefire, ...
ABC News - 3d
DOGE Is Putting Major Government Efficiency Projects at Risk

In its apparent quest to cut government spending and improve efficiency, DOGE has fired entire tech teams devoted to those very things.
Wired - 3d

More from The Hill

Comedian of Trump rally fame gets Netflix deal

Tony Hinchcliffe, the comedian who made multiple controversial jokes at a Trump rally in October, has received a Netflix deal. “Kill Tony is coming to Netflix. We're teaming up with Tony ...
The Hill - 35m
Musk outlines DOGE work in rare TV interview

Tech billionaire Elon Musk offered new details about the work of President Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Monday, while doubling down on the group’s efforts amid ...
The Hill - 38m
Amazon to begin streaming Trump reality show ‘The Apprentice’

Amazon announced on Monday that it will begin streaming President Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice.” In a release, Prime Video said seasons one through seven of Trump’s Emmy Award-nominated ...
The Hill - 47m
Evening Report — Shutdown drama unfolds amid recession fears

Presented by National Council on Aging — Congress is rushing to pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. {beacon} Evening Report TRUMP FIRST 100 DAYS © Greg Nash Government ...
The Hill - 1h
Transportation secretary rescinds Biden memos prioritizing infrastructure resilience to climate change

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rescinded memos from the Biden administration prioritizing infrastructure resilience to climate change, according to a Monday press release. According to the ...
The Hill - 1h