USAID employees pack up their desks as Trump administration pushes ahead with slashing agency

Federal employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development walked out of agency headquarters for the final time on Thursday, to the cheers and applause of their colleagues.

The USAID workers, some of them in tears, one by one walked out of the building carrying bags and boxes of their belongings. Some were carrying bouquets of flowers. Scores of supporters gathered outside the building. Some brought coffee and food to hand out to the terminated workers.

Kama Garrison, who spent nearly 22 years of her career at USAID, stood outside agency headquarters Thursday morning along with many others showing support for the fired workers.

Garrison had begun a different position with the agency four months ago, which trigged a new probationary period. As a result, she became one of tens of thousands of probationary federal employees governmentwide who have been terminated.

Kama described the rapid dismantling of USAID as “devastating.”

“When you commit your life to a career that you think is for the better of the world, it’s not just an office job where I’m going to get a paycheck. Many of us were Peace Corps volunteers, and then did this as our career,” Garrison told Federal News Network. “It’s like taking a core value and a piece of your identity away from you. To hear the way that our current government speaks about the work we did is really just like an extra knife in the heart.”

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Trump administration officials gave the terminated USAID employees 15-minute windows throughout the day on Thursday to enter the federal headquarters building, pack up their personal belongings and exit the agency for the final time. The schedule for employees to pack up their belongings will continue through Friday.

“Staff MUST bring their own boxes, bags, tape and/or other containers to remove their personal items; these items will not be provided,” administration officials wrote in an email sent to agency staff, obtained by Federal News Network. “Neither USAID, nor any of our assisting agencies, will provide boxes, tape, protective wrapping or other packaging materials to assist with the retrieval process.”

Amanda, a federal employee who agreed to an interview on the condition that her last name was not used out of fear of retribution, was one of many USAID employees whose job was terminated over the weekend.

“It feels very impersonal,” she told Federal News Network outside USAID headquarters on Thursday. “The work that we did was personal and made a lot of inspiring stories and impacted a lot of people. To have this close-out — for lack of a better word — is tragic. It’s gonna be a really rough day.”

Amanda showed up to USAID headquarters Thursday morning alongside many of her colleagues to show support those who were packing up their belongings throughout the day.

“The building is where we met, but the agency is bigger than the building,” she said. “The impact we had is bigger than the building and a couple people deciding that we’re not worthy.”

USAID has been one of the biggest targets of the Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal government. Only a fraction of USAID employees are still in their jobs after the administration’s actions slashing the agency over the past several weeks.

The dismantling of the agency comes after a federal judge allowed the Trump administration to move forward with its plan to terminate thousands of USAID employees. Over the last few days, administration officials notified a majority of USAID employees that they were either on administrative leave or fully terminated. In the space of a few weeks, the agency has been reduced from thousands of employees down to about 600.

The actions at USAID may soon spread further across the federal government. On Wednesday, the White House sent a memo giving agencies two weeks to put together their initial plans for conducting reductions in force (RIFs).

USAID was an early target of DOGE’s steps aiming to cut costs and improve efficiency. Both President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have said the agency’s programs are a waste of money.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced it would eliminate more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world.

Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week sent letters to current and former USAID leaders to press for more information on the impacts of slashing USAID. During a hearing Wednesday by the committee’s Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, several Democratic members called the administration’s dismantling of USAID “shortsighted” and a risk to global health.

“Soft power is our way of building diplomacy around the world, and how we build that diplomacy probably looks different in every administration,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said during the hearing. “But the issue that I have right now is that some would argue that we’ve taken a butcher knife where we need a scalpel. Or others would just say that we are throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but either way, we are not accomplishing our goal.”

Natasha Sakolsky, a public health specialist who has worked for about 30 years at non-profit organizations and federal contractors that partner with USAID, came to the agency’s headquarters Thursday to help send off the employees exiting the building.

“They’ve given their lives to this work, and the way that they’re being treated is cruel. I feel really sad for them,” Sakolsky told Federal News Network. “I felt like this was a last opportunity to recognize what this agency and the people within it have been able to provide to the world.”

One USAID employee who was fired from her job described the agency employees as “American heroes.”

“They did not come to USAID for the money. They didn’t come for the glory,” she told reporters as she exited agency headquarters. “We rightly honor our men and women in uniform. These are heroes who don’t wear uniforms. They are being treated in a manner that nobody should treat their worst enemy — and they’re being treated that way by their own government.”

Many employees also expressed concerns about the impact USAID’s shuttering would have on U.S. development and humanitarian aid and assistance around the globe.

“All the people and all the need doesn’t go away in this moment,” one employee who worked at USAID for 24 years told reporters as she walked out of the building for the last time. “This is a destruction, but we need to rebuild from the ashes. People still need us to be able to respond. So the question is, how are we going to do that? We need this community. We need the strength. We need everybody.”

Kate Parsons, an employee who was terminated from her job at USAID, took a few moments to remove black tape that was covering a USAID sign outside the agency’s headquarters building.

“USAID is still here,” she said. “USAID is not done.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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