Washington, DC – Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today issued the following statement condemning the Trump administration for unilaterally shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) without Congressional approval.

“For two months, the Trump administration has chaotically gutted USAID, ignoring Congress and leaving urgent questions unanswered, and now has notified that it plans to subsume the agency under State. Nothing about this process has been genuine or in good faith. 

“The consequences of this reckless decision are already evident; China and Russia are already filling in the gaps created by this administration’s reckless assault on U.S. foreign assistance. While the administration claims it will retain some global health and humanitarian assistance functions, it is jettisoning critical work USAID has been doing – at Congress’s direction – for decades in sectors such as education, good governance, crisis stabilization, agriculture, and economic growth. Furthermore, these plans violate the law, which requires that USAID exist as a separate entity. Presidents are not kings, and if the administration wishes to change the law, the GOP, which controls both the House and Senate, should pass one.  

“By firing all USAID employees and kneecapping the programs that remain, this administration lays bare its true intention: to withdraw the United States from its global leadership role with as much cruelty and disruption as possible.”