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Marco Rubio Says He Now Runs U.S.A.I.D. as Staff Are Blocked From Systems [1]
['Michael Crowley', 'Karoun Demirjian', 'Edward Wong']
Date: 2025-02-03
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that he had taken over as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, assuming control of an agency that had functioned largely independently for over 60 years and stoking fears about U.S. assistance around the world.
Mr. Rubio’s announcement came after a week of drastic changes at U.S.A.I.D., the government’s lead agency for humanitarian aid and development assistance. Senior officials have been suspended, and hundreds of civil servants and contractors have been iced out of U.S.A.I.D. systems without warning.
Many of the cuts were rolled out in secret and without warning, as representatives of Elon Musk, who was deputized by President Trump to lead a task force to reduce government spending, took over its operations despite objections from aid workers and Democrats in Congress.
Speaking to reporters in El Salvador, Mr. Rubio said that many of U.S.A.I.D.’s programs were worthwhile and would continue under the umbrella of the State Department, promising to delegate the day-to-day operations to a person whom he did not name.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/usaid-trump-musk.html?smid=url-share
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