Washington Following entrepreneur Elon Musk’s efforts to shut down the country’s humanitarian arm under President Donald Trump’s leadership, Democratic members of Congress were refused admission to the U.S. Agency for International Development on Monday.
Over the weekend, senators and members of the House gathered outside the agency’s closed headquarters in Washington, D.C., and vowed to oppose Musk’s activities. This involved dispatching personnel from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to forcibly enter the computer networks and data of USAID.
This injustice will not be tolerated. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia told a sizable crowd assembled outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, the agency’s headquarters, that if you want to change it, you have to modify the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which Congress enacted.
In front of a throng of reporters and USAID staff, Sen. Chris Van Hollen declared that the Trump administration’s action against USAID was unlawful and that he had been consulting with attorneys over the weekend.
The Maryland Democrat told the gathering, which was peppered with homemade protest posters that read USAID Must Be Saved and USAID Saves Lives, that this was a blatant breach of the law.
Following the news conference, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii declared that he would impose a blanket hold on all of Trump’s future nominations for the State Department.
After the outdoor press conference, Connolly, Van Hollen, Schatz, and a number of other Democratic members, including Representatives Jamie Raskin and Johnny Olszewski of Maryland, Don Beyer of Virginia, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, were refused access to USAID’s office.
Workers were instructed not to report to the building on Monday via text messages and emails.
About 10,000 employees, two-thirds of whom are employed abroad, oversee programs and disburse cash to about 130 nations. In fiscal year 2023, the department received approximately $40 billion in appropriations.
The impartial Congressional Research Service claims that the agency is an independent organization by legislation and that the Secretary of State has direct power over it and sets its policies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that he is now USAID’s acting administrator while addressing reporters in El Salvador.
Rubio informed reporters that USAID participates in initiatives that conflict with our national agenda in any particular nation.
People have been trying to change it for 20 or 30 years, but it refuses to cooperate and reform, Rubio remarked.
According to The Associated Press, Musk stated in a live chat on X Spaces early on Monday that Trump concurred that we should shut it down. Live X Space recordings are not immediately made available to the general audience. During the online conversation, GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Joni Ernst of Iowa joined Musk.
On Saturday, the agency’s X social media account and website, USAID.gov, went black.
Over the weekend, people posing as DOGE employees gained access to USAID’s computers and data at the agency’s headquarters, CNN said. After originally rejecting access, at least two USAID security staff were placed on administrative leave.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order creating DOGE to modernize Federal software and technology in order to increase government production and efficiency.
Rubio has been requested by Senate Foreign Relations Democrats to provide an immediate report on who gained access to USAID’s files and system on Saturday and whether they looked over personally identifiable information and secret material.
It is unknown whether those who gained access to sensitive classified facilities had the appropriate clearance or what they were trying to access, even though some of the individuals claimed to have security clearances. In a letter co-signed by all of the panel’s Democrats, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated, “We understand that the security guards present at the facility were threatened when they raised questions.”
Shaheen claimed that the committee, which is in charge of overseeing foreign aid, was unaware that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency would be stopping by USAID’s headquarters.
The Office of Security, which protects national security information and secures USAID personnel and buildings, put its senior management on administrative leave after this event. Deep concerns regarding the protection and safeguarding of matters related to U.S. national security are raised by the incident’s overall nature and the possible access to sensitive, even classified, files, which may include the personally identifiable information (PII) of Americans working with USAID, Shaheen wrote.
No classified material was accessed without the required security clearances, according to a post made by DOGE spokesperson Katie Miller on X Sunday.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that extremist lunatics run USAID and that they will be removed before a decision is made.
Musk claimed the CIA is a criminal organization in a post on his social media account, X Sunday.
For comment, States Newsroom contacted the State Department and the White House.
Trump issued an executive order to suspend foreign aid initiatives for ninety days just hours after taking office.
