Two former US Agency for International Development (USAID), who was fired last month, said on Monday that Marco Rubio, whose spending cuts had been announced to “risk his life.”
“When we say we're going to cut 83% of USAID's programs, I think we're trying to put our lives at risk when we're talking about life-saving aid programs,” said Linden Yi, a former employee of the agency. Monday's CNN.
“There is no way not to harm the lives of millions,” she added.
Rubio announced the size of the expected cuts for USAID early in the morning.
“After six weeks of review, we officially cancel 83% of USAID's programs.” RubioI wrote it on social platform x.
Rubio said the cancelled commitments have sometimes “harmed” US national interests.
“The 5,200 currently cancelled contracts spent hundreds of billions of dollars in ways that are (and sometimes unharmed) in the core US national interest,” he said.
Yee and Benjamin Thompson, another former USAID employee, pushed back the proposal that work at USAID had a negative impact on American profits.
“The underlying assumption in Rubio's statement is that these programs are full of what is called “waste, fraud, abuse.” If that was actually the case, if it was their true intentions, they would have done this in a very different way,” Thompson said.
“They would have worked with existing personnel. They would have worked with inspectors to review our programs, funding sources,” he added.
Yee and Thompson, who were let go last month as part of a mass shooting at the Trump administration's foreign aid agency, have been working for two years at USAID and have been engaged in getting married.
Yee said her contract ended with just five minutes of notice and some tasks remained incomplete as she lacked time to let her close colleagues know.
“This is not the way we wanted to close these programs,” she added.
According to Thompson, he was given a short time to collect his belongings from his office as the guards watch.
“It was very clearly intended to be threatened and intimidated, but it appears violently inappropriate and inappropriate,” he said.
Meanwhile, Usaid's Friends of Usaid, a newsletter run by volunteers supported by USAID staff, isHe criticized the government Failure to properly review the programmes being cut.
“USAID missions around the world worked 24 hours a day over the weekend – they drafted an explanation of the program that explained what we do and why it mattered, Monday morning, before we had the opportunity to submit anything, we woke up to know that a decision had already been made,” the author wrote.
“Explain that this is fairness, transparency, or a thorough review.”
