Ranking Member Connolly and Senator Kaine Rebuke DOGE’s Plans to Illegally Dissolve USAID
Washington,
March 28, 2025
Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement after the State Department officially notified Congress of its plans to illegally dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), fire all USAID employees, and absorb the agency into the State Department.
“Let us be clear—eliminating USAID is illegal and completely outside the bounds of Trump’s authority. If he wants to dismantle or fold USAID into another agency and fire all USAID personnel he must come to Congress, not Elon Musk. The Trump-Musk Administration has sacrificed America’s global leadership at the altar of their greed and lies and children will starve, disease will spread, populations will sink further into poverty, and human rights will be threatened. Countries in need will be forced to look to China and America’s adversaries for help, further weakening America and undermining our standing. All because this President and his billionaire oligarch want to use our humanitarian budget to subsidize tax giveaways to billionaires. This is an act of weakness and retreat, and we will continue to fight this in the courts, in Congress, and with the American people.” |