This July marked a profound personal transition for many dedicated professionals, including myself, as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a long-standing pillar of American foreign policy, was controversially shuttered. For 15 years, my family and I served globally as a Foreign Service Officer, advancing American interests and bettering lives through international development assistance. The sudden decision to dismantle an agency so central to global influence and humanitarian efforts demands a thorough examination of its true implications and the justifications provided.
My journey to USAID began after a decade in the private sector as a lawyer and investment banker. While successful in those roles, a deeper calling to public service and a desire to directly aid the world’s most vulnerable led me to USAID. This agency embodied the legendary American generosity, serving not only as a powerful signal of our national character but also as a well-proven strategy for extending global influence—a truly helpful neighbor on the international stage.
USAID held a uniquely crucial position within our nation’s international endeavors, having garnered decades of robust bipartisan support across numerous administrations. While each political party naturally prioritized different facets of its extensive work, the fundamental value of “development” as an indispensable complement to “diplomacy” (spearheaded by the State Department) and “defense” (managed by the Pentagon) was universally recognized. This established consensus made the abrupt attack on USAID in the initial week of the new administration particularly startling to foreign affairs circles worldwide.
The primary rationale widely publicized for USAID’s elimination cited claims of rampant fraud and pervasive waste within the agency. While legitimate philosophical discussions about the optimal organization and implementation of foreign aid are always welcome, the assertion that USAID was fundamentally corrupt was demonstrably baseless. Throughout my years as an in-house attorney, I witnessed firsthand USAID’s unwavering commitment to combating fraud and waste, actively participating in rigorous oversight efforts.
Indeed, with an extensive framework of audits, comprehensive reports, regular spot-checks, and various other stringent controls firmly in place, it is highly improbable that any comparably large organization globally maintained as minimal a level of fraud as USAID. Isolated instances were occasionally identified, almost exclusively at the lowest operational levels of our contractor or grantee organizations. However, the financial amounts involved were typically negligible, and these issues were consistently and swiftly rectified. To suggest that such minor occurrences of fraud and waste served as a legitimate basis for USAID’s complete dissolution would be akin to amputating an arm to address a trivial hangnail.
The profound irony inherent in the entire affair lies in the fact that the highly deleterious remarks concerning USAID’s operational integrity and the competence of its dedicated employees, if genuinely accurate, would constitute a far more damning indictment of every single administration that had previously supported, funded, and consistently relied upon the agency for decades. What credible corporation would publicly announce the elimination of one of its divisions under the pretense that it was unaccountable, its leadership was antagonistic towards the parent company, and it was perpetually plagued by fraud and waste—and had been so for generations? The market would instantaneously discern the disingenuous nature of such justifications, resulting in a precipitous decline in shareholder value.
My core contention remains that USAID has consistently proven itself to be an invaluable and effective instrument for the American people for many decades, serving vital roles in both international development and foreign policy. While any administration possesses the inherent right to introduce modifications that genuinely reflect evolving national priorities, to eliminate such a critical agency under the pretext of its being inherently corrupt and a betrayal of American values is not only unfounded and unprofessional but profoundly disingenuous. This approach raises significant and unsettling questions regarding the actual motivations behind USAID’s abrupt dismantling.
Ultimately, the lingering question of why USAID was truly eliminated remains at the forefront of my mind as I endeavor to mentally process my profound separation from what I consider to have been one of the most noble and impactful endeavors of the U.S. government. The impact of this decision on global development and American standing continues to be a subject of critical analysis and ongoing debate.
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