Staff Reports
In a stunning show of bureaucratic obliteration, more than 2,000 employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently found themselves out of a job or, at the very least, temporarily relieved of their responsibilities. In a move that has all the hallmarks of a serious audit rather than a lazy summer day at the office, these USAID workers were informed that by the stroke of midnight on February 23, 2025, nearly everyone except a select few deemed “mission-critical” would be placed on administrative leave. In other words, it’s the agency’s version of a “timeout.”
As if the situation couldn’t get any better—at least from a conservative standpoint—it became clear that the agency would be embarking on a Reduction-in-Force that would initially target a whopping 2,000 jobs, only to have the number revised down to a more modest 1,600. Seems like reductions at USAID are as whimsical as their budgets, swinging from high to low without much rhyme or reason. Meanwhile, those poor souls left standing will have to navigate a world of new instructions regarding their benefits, all thanks to some bureaucratic sleight of hand and perhaps a couple of legal loopholes.
Workers received notice today that the administration was placing USAID direct hire personnel on admin leave globally starting tonight, and firing at least 1600 personnel. That message now shared online as well. pic.twitter.com/lkMPcLRBLJ
— Haley Bull (@HaleyBullNews) February 23, 2025
What triggered this wave of layoffs, you might ask? Of course, it’s a little known fact that the Trump administration apparently decided that it was time to check in on how U.S. foreign aid is doled out. After a ruling by a Trump-appointed judge, the administration received the green light to tackle those pesky questions of effectiveness and accountability—concepts obviously foreign to an agency like USAID that has operated with little oversight for far too long.
The ruling, carried out by District Judge Carl Nichols, dismissed claims from unions representing the foreign service officers who bemoaned the cuts. They failed to convince the judge that putting personnel on administrative leave would somehow be the end of the world as we know it. Judge Nichols clearly saw through the smoke and mirrors, indicating that if the Trump administration wanted to measure effectiveness—or in layman’s terms, make sure taxpayer dollars aren’t funneled into the abyss—they could do that without the whining of bureaucrats looking to maintain their cushy positions.
To facilitate this journey into the unknown for those in “administrative leave limbo,” USAID has promised its overseas staff a voluntary return travel program, as well as the delightful prospect of fishing personal items from their now-empty workspaces, much like a post-apocalyptic scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, for those essential employees who are trudging onward through this bureaucratic minefield, they’ll be kept informed by agency leaders in a timely manner, assuming the leaders themselves don’t also end up on that administrative leave list.
So buckle up, folks; the gears of government may be grinding to a halt, but it looks like USAID is finally getting the shake-up it so desperately needed. In a world where spending taxpayer dollars on unclear foreign assistance programs has become the norm, sometimes a little chaos is just the oil change that the engine of bureaucracy requires.
