As the Trump administration devises wasteful, nonsensical plans to spend what remains of congressionally appropriated foreign assistance funds during a government shutdown, fired employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development watch from the sidelines.
Just before nearly all of USAID’s remaining staff left their jobs last month, Secretary Marco Rubio jokingly tweeted from his official account that he had handed off one of his four jobs to Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Referring to USAID, Rubio tweeted, “Russ is now at the helm to oversee the closeout of an agency that long ago went off the rails. Congrats, Russ.”
Rubio’s taunting tone toward USAID’s career workforce, many of whom had served in conflict zones and across multiple administrations, was more befitting of a middle-school bully than a U.S. Cabinet secretary.
What Rubio utterly failed to acknowledge in his brief stint as acting USAID administrator, while railing indiscriminately against its staff and programs, is that every single U.S. taxpayer dollar that USAID spent was dictated by Congress, a body in which he had direct influence over USAID’s budget for 14 years. Especially as a senior member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he chaired and participated in hearings at which senior USAID officials testified, received briefings from USAID staff and, most significantly, shaped the annual laws that funded USAID.
I am acutely aware of these facts because, for more than 17 years, it was my job at USAID to ensure funds were spent according to congressional intent as laid out in law, and to respond to the congressional oversight critical to the checks and balances of a functioning democracy.
I personally responded to written questions from then-Senator Rubio following congressional hearings and accompanied senior USAID officials to brief his staff. He may not have agreed with every USAID activity, but he contributed to and repeatedly voted for the legislation that funded USAID’s programs. USAID respected Congress’s power of the purse articulated in Article One of the U.S. Constitution and took seriously its role to be accountable to the Republicans and Democrats overseeing USAID’s spending.
The process by which USAID received and spent its funds — equivalent to less than 1 percent of the federal budget — was lengthy and likely uninteresting to most people. However, the baseless accusations of waste, fraud and abuse by Rubio, previously one of our staunchest Republican allies in Congress, necessitate a primer on the sausage making.
Annual appropriations laws laid out the funds legislated by Congress for USAID’s programs in great detail. These laws included specific funding levels that USAID was mandated to use on specific purposes in specific countries and sectors in support of U.S. national security objectives. For example, the appropriations bill for fiscal 2021, when Senate Republicans were in the majority, required that USAID and the Department of State spend $2.4 billion on democracy programs, $165 million to combat gender-based violence, and $506 million for Central America.
The detailed nature of these budgets handed down by Congress was a point of frustration, as USAID staff on the front lines of managing U.S. interests and furthering U.S. national security abroad were often left without the flexibility needed to fund the development priorities identified in country-specific cooperation strategies. Many times in my career, I had to manage budgets that were responsive only to narrow congressional directives with no room to meet emerging on-the-ground needs.
Yet USAID complied with the law and developed its programs accordingly. Furthermore, before spending a single penny of taxpayer funds, USAID submitted documents known as Congressional Notifications to its committees of jurisdiction, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. These provided detailed information on USAID’s planned use of congressionally appropriated funds by country, account and sector.
Importantly, these documents also clearly stated which of USAID’s partner organizations would receive funds. USAID was required to wait a minimum of 15 calendar days after transmitting the notifications to Congress before using the funds; thus, congressional stakeholders had ample opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns. USAID carefully and transparently documented these Congressional Notifications and other approvals required by law — documents that have now been erased by this administration.
The rigidity of funding directives and intense scrutiny and oversight to which USAID was beholden by law left little room for USAID to veer off the course that Congress set. Given Rubio’s direct role in legislating USAID’s budget and programs, his mockery suggests that either he did not take his previous role seriously, or he has gone off the rails to maintain his standing in this administration, leaving our country less secure and weaker as the shutdown drags on.
Michelle Dworkin served as a Foreign Service Officer with USAID for more than 17 years. Her assignments included Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Afghanistan, Egypt and Washington.
