Rubio declares himself acting head of USAID
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday announced he is the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as the Trump administration attempts to move the independent agency under the State Department, NPR reported.
USAID employees at the headquarters in Washington were told in an email not to report to work on Monday, but to come to a staff meeting today.
Traveling in El Salvador, Rubio told reporters his frustration with the agency went back to his time in Congress, The New York Times reported.
“It’s a completely unresponsive agency,” Rubio told reporters. “It’s supposed to respond to policy directives with the State Department, and it refuses to do so.”
Rubio added that “there are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue” but “it has to be aligned with American foreign policy.”
The Times also reported that Democratic Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia and Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., tried to enter the USAID headquarters on Monday but were denied under the order from Elon Musk to keep the offices closed. Van Hollen said they were working with lawyers to get an injunction to block that order and get workers back in the office.
The Guardian published an article about Peter Marocco, a former director of the Office of Foreign Assistance, who has apparently returned to the agency.
DTN/Progressive Farmer published an analysis of USAID’s role in purchasing U.S. commodities and its relationship with the Agriculture Department.