Donald Trump and Elon Musk had an immediate target for wrangling the bureaucracy. Shortly after Trump took office, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) set its sights on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its $40 billion budget. Musk went about the task of carving up USAID, putting its 10,000 employees on paid leave, and leaving the thousands of left-wing NGOs high and dry.
Trump put Secretary of State Marco Rubio in charge of the truncated agency, and Rubio began to reorganize USAID, bringing it under the auspices of the State Department, removing its status as an independent agency.
“The Department of State and other pertinent entities will be consulting with Congress and the appropriate committees to reorganize and absorb certain bureaus, offices, and missions of USAID,” Rubio wrote to lawmakers last month.
Thus was born the U.S. Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance "to help enhance national security and counter adversaries like China," according to the memo that The Wall Street Journal viewed.
A federal judge recently ruled that shuttering USAID was unconstitutional. Whether that will impact the reorganization is unclear.
“Any changes to the structure of USAID will be done in consultation with Congress and will be subject to congressional notification,” a State Department spokesperson said.
USAID’s mission had become too broad and created disincentives in certain countries to invest in their own reforms, the memo stated. High-cost programs that don’t provide strong returns to U.S. taxpayers should be eliminated, and programs shouldn’t be solely philanthropic but should advance American national security, strategic and commercial interests, the memo said.
The proposed new structure aims to project American soft power and enhance national security, with a focus on countering competitors such as China. Multiple USAID bureaus, including those for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East would be eliminated, according to the memo.
Most of the programs highlighted by conservatives and targeted for elimination are part of USAID's "political" programs.
Politically oriented programs, including the promotion of democracy, empowering women, religious freedom and combating human trafficking, will be redirected to other sections of the State Department, according to the memo.
Most of those "politically oriented" programs were where the radical left used USAID as its personal slush fund. However, judging the efficacy of programs based on "strong returns to U.S. taxpayers" and "solely philanthropic" programs being axed is highly subjective. Supplying expensive AIDS drugs to Africans may not give a "strong return" to taxpayers but buttresses the U.S. reputation for humanitarianism in the world. It's impossible to quantify something like that.
The memo shared by Politico says the president’s fiscal 2026 funding request should call for a series of changes to appropriations accounts and that Congress would have to adopt these changes in final legislation that can pass both chambers.
The changes include the abolition of the Development Assistance and Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia accounts; the merger of the Migration and Refugee Assistance and International Disaster Assistance accounts; the transfer of the Transition Initiatives account to the Department of State; and the elimination of congressional directives on the Economic Support Fund.
What in God's name were we giving "development assistance" to Europe for? Sheesh.
Much like the coming reorganization of the Education Department, many of the USAID programs will be transferred to other agencies or scrapped altogether. The money saved will be important, but equally vital will be the streamlining of a chaotic agency.
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