After months of cuts, State Department says it's officially shuttering USAID
The State Department said Friday it was officially shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development, in what could deal a final blow to the beleaguered foreign aid agency.
The move came several hours before a federal appeals court overruled a lower court's order that blocked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from dismantling USAID.
In a memo distributed Friday to USAID employees and obtained by ABC News, Jeremy Lewin, the agency's new deputy director and a former Department of Government Efficiency official, wrote that the State Department "intends to assume responsibility for many of USAID's functions and its ongoing programming."
The State Department "will seek to retire USAID's independent operation" immediately and "assess" whether to rehire some unknown number of officials to "assume the responsible administration of USAID's remaining life-saving and strategic aid programming," the memo said.
"This transfer will significantly enhance efficiency, accountability, uniformity, and strategic impact in delivering foreign assistance programs -- allowing our nation and President to speak with one voice in foreign affairs," according to the memo.
"It will also obviate the need for USAID to continue operating as an independent establishment," the memo said.
As part of the move, the memo said, "all non-statutory positions at USAID will be eliminated."
Two weeks after a court ruled that attempts to unilaterally dismantle USAID were likely unconstitutional, a panel of three judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit stayed that ruling on Friday, finding that the Trump administration is likely to prove that the DOGE's effort to dismantle USAID did not violate the Constitution.
"While defendants' role and actions related to USAID are not conventional, unconventional does not necessarily equal unconstitutional," Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. wrote in a concurring opinion.
Trump administration officials, including Musk's DOGE group, have leading a widespread effort to dismantle the agency by laying off thousands of employees, revoking funding for more than 80% of its programs, and shedding its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
The decision to completely dissolve a federal agency is expected to prompt legal scrutiny, according to experts who said such a move would typically require congressional approval.
In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that the administration was officially moving to sunset USAID and that foreign aid would now officially be administered by the State Department.
"Thanks to President Trump, this misguided and fiscally irresponsible era is now over," Rubio said in his statement. "We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens."
"We are continuing essential lifesaving programs and making strategic investments that strengthen our partners and our own country," Rubio said in his statement.
Critics of the Trump administration say its efforts to nullify the agency will cripple American influence overseas and carry devastating effects for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world, which relied on U.S. funding for health care, food, and other basic needs.
The State Department also said that its leadership, along with USAID leadership in place, had notified Congress of their intent to reorganize some USAID functions within the State Department by July 1 of this year.
The overall push to eliminate USAID and the reduction of the agency's staff is being challenged in multiple court cases.
