Senate Democrats split over how to combat Trump's USAID shutdown

Senate Democrats are split over how to push back against President Trump’s attempts to slash the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an embattled front line in the larger fight against the administration’s effort to overhaul the federal government.

On one side are Democrats trying to enlist Republican allies, who have historically been staunch supporters of foreign assistance as a key tool in competing with China for global influence and security. The other wing is banging the drum for action, obstruction and public opposition to the Republican triumvirate in Washington, arguing that bipartisanship is futile.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is in the collaborative camp. “I was just thinking about … how we bring our Republicans — so many of whom we work with all the time and respect — to the point where they're not acquiescing in this,” said this week.

“Many of them care about national security and they care about the issues, I know, I've worked with them.”

A senior Senate Democratic adviser said banking on these Republicans to influence the White House was futile.

“Even if the GOP are weighing in, it’s not helping,” they said.

Democrats advocating obstruction warn that Trump’s moves to overhaul USAID and fold it into the State Department — spearheaded by Elon Musk and his colleagues at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — is the first salvo from an administration that wants to run roughshod over Congress’s power of the purse.

“We are observing a ransacking of an agency absolutely outside of the four corners of the statute, Foreign Assistance Act and every appropriations bill subsequent to that, plus the Constitution of the United States,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii.).

Over a dizzying three weeks, Trump allowed Musk’s DOGE to effectively shut down USAID. This included infiltrating USAID’s electronic systems and cutting staff off from their emails, work systems, and taking control of payment operations to block disbursement.

While Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists lifesaving programs under the agency are continuing, the sudden changes and dismissals have thrust the global aid community into uncertainty and disarray.

One of Musk’s DOGE staffers was reportedly put in a position at the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, raising alarm over access to operational systems and signaling that the cuts and disruption could soon expand into the State Department.

Republicans have largely dismissed Democratic concerns, defending broader efforts to cut government waste, fraud and abuse, and pointing to specific USAID programs they take offense with.

“President Trump in my opinion is absolutely making America immeasurably stronger by gutting USAID and gutting the State Department, forthcoming,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla).

As the minority party in both the House and Senate, Democrats have little power to actually block Trump’s moves without at least a few Republicans. The Senate filibuster, a procedural rule requiring 60 votes to pass legislation, gives Democrats some power to block the GOP, which holds a 53 majority in the Senate and a tiny margin in the House.

But Democrats can’t force a vote on anything. And without subpoena power to conduct investigations or compel testimony from Trump officials, the minority is relegated to writing strongly worded letters, holding public protests and filing lawsuits, hoping the courts are a bulwark.

Schatz is one of a few Democrats exercising his limited power in the Senate. He committed to delaying confirmation votes for all of Trump’s State Department nominees until the “attack on USAID is reversed.”

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) has raised the possibility of a government shutdown, saying budget talks are one area where Democrats can exercise leverage, especially with House Republicans deeply divided over the best path forward.

“It’s not about us forcing a shutdown. It's about whether or not they are actually engaged in a bipartisan effort to be able to move forward,” he told PBS.

But this is an extreme move that is unlikely to gain wide backing in the caucus.

“We don’t like Donald Trump doing the shutdown he’s already doing, 'I’m going to shut down this agency, I’m going to shut down this agency’ — contrary to the role of Congress,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

“So if we’re going to reach a budget deal to keep the government open, we want to make sure the president follows it, that’s my principal concern.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, set up a tip line for federal whistleblowers working in areas under the committee’s jurisdiction, like USAID and the State Department.

Court injunctions are temporarily blocking Trump’s attempts to freeze the agency’s $40 billion budget and delaying the administration’s plans to lay off thousands of direct hires — although it’s unclear if the administration is complying.

Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) said Democrats should exercise enforcement of the Impoundment Control Act, which can be used to force the executive branch to spend congressionally appropriated funds.

“All this is to say there are many practical – not just performative – ways to stop Musk and Trump from dismantling government – through courts, and multiple points of leverage Democrats in Congress have,” Malinowski posted on the social platform X.

“They're trying to make you feel helpless. Don't let them.”

Republican resistance to Trump’s funding moves thus far has been piecemeal and behind the scenes.

Former Republican Rep. Ted Yoho (Fla.), testifying this week before the GOP-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned Trump’s foreign aid freeze is having immediate consequences on U.S. security interests globally.

“By pausing U.S. international assistance a vacuum is created. China, Russia and others are already moving in to fill those voids,” he said during a hearing that Republican lawmakers set up largely to malign USAID.

“The U.S. must quickly bring back the authorization, funding and knowledgeable workforce to implement those programs that align with the administration’s goal: does it make America safer, stronger and more prosperous?”

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) publicly called out Rubio when hundreds of millions of dollars worth of American food aid risked spoiling at ports under the foreign aid freeze.

“Time is running out before this life-saving aid perishes,” he wrote on X.

Food started moving about five days later.

But Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said mitigation efforts, including Rubio’s issuance of a confusing and chaotic “waiver,” misses the larger issue: The executive branch is trying to shut down an agency written into law by Congress and without the consent of Congress.

“You will hear some interest from Republicans in small mitigations but not any substantial interest in stopping the illegality, meaning the waiver process is not working,” Murphy said.

Rubio issued a waiver on Jan. 28 exempting life-saving humanitarian assistance from the freeze. But no U.S. cash is flowing. Nongovernmental organizations operating under the waiver exemption are using their limited funds with no guarantee they’ll be reimbursed in the future.

“There’s no reason to work together on trying to fix the waiver process, that’s a corruption in and of itself. We should be stopping the president’s unconstitutional closure of USAID,” Murphy said.

Shaheen is working to leverage her close relationship with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair James Risch (R-Idaho), to exercise influence on the Trump administration, such as pushing for Rubio’s initial waiver. Risch told The Hill he spoke to Rubio about the aid freeze “I don’t know how many times."

But Shaheen’s GOP colleagues did not show up for a Wednesday roundtable event — a mock congressional hearing — to examine the fallout from Trump’s freeze on foreign aid and efforts to dismantle USAID.

“We did invite all of the Republican members of the [Foreign Relations] committee as well as a number of our Republican colleagues. It's not clear to me who will show up, but they were invited,” Shaheen said.

And any potential Republican allies are not coming out in defense of USAID or expressing great urgency in scaling back Trump’s actions.

“I know that we have followed up with some folks to ask some specific questions on particular programs that have been brought to our attention. I can’t tell you right now whether they’ve been resolved yet or not,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told The Hill on Thursday.

“It’s a matter of making sure that there’s no … mistakes of oversight, with regards to things that they either intend to continue on with or not, but by accident have shut down.”

Rounds said it is “yet to be determined” if Trump firing the USAID Inspector General was a bad move.

Trump fired the USAID IG the day after the watchdog published a report detailed how the administration's staffing cuts — 90 percent of the workforce — left no safeguards in place to protect foreign aid distribution.

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