The U.S. Agency of International Development is expected to be reduced to about 290 workers from the more than 5,000 foreign service officers, civil servants and personal service contractors it currently employs, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
Most of the approximately 3,000 institutional support contractors have already been fired or furloughed. The status of the approximately 5,000 foreign service nationals serving around the world is not yet clear.
The bureaus of Humanitarian Assistance, Global Health and Management are expected to retain the most staff members, but under the expected plan, only 12 people would be dedicated to the entire continent of Africa and eight people for all of Asia.
Europe, which had about 600 dedicated employees between both the field and the Washington, D.C., offices last year, will now be served by just 10 people.
Thousands of USAID employees learned they would be placed on administrative leave starting at 11:59 p.m. Friday through a message posted on USAID.gov this week. USAID personnel overseas were given 30 days to return to the United States.
Asked about additional guidance for USAID employees facing uncertainty, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the actions were not meant to be “disruptive.”
“We’re not trying to be disruptive to people’s personal lives,” Rubio told reporters in Santo Domingo on Thursday during a joint media availability with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader. “We’re not trying to — we’re not being punitive here, but this is the only way we’ve been able to get cooperation from USAID.”
He said exceptions would be made for employees with extraordinary circumstances, saying, “We didn’t list them all, but we’re willing to listen to those.”
The American Foreign Service Association, a union representing 1,800 foreign service officers working for USAID, and the American Federation of Government Employees sued the Trump administration Thursday, alleging efforts to dissolve the agency “have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors.””Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization. And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit asks a federal court in Washington to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction directing the administration to halt the shutdown.
The American Foreign Service Association had criticized the Trump administration in a statement Wednesday for “punishing dedicated public servants and hurting their families for simply doing their jobs” when it recalled foreign service personnel from overseas.
“Beyond the damage to U.S. interests abroad, this decision will impose an enormous financial and logistical burden—costing American taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and overwhelming the personnel system responsible for managing the evacuation,” the group said.
The action at USAID is one of a series of efforts by the Trump administration to dramatically whittle the federal workforce.
The administration said last week it would offer buyouts to roughly 2 million federal workers as Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, try to remake the federal government and abolish some of its agencies.
A federal judge in Boston on Thursday temporarily blocked the buyout offer pending a hearing Monday.
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