USAID is a sh!#show

[Anonymous]

USAID does have a Buy America policy.

[Anonymous]

Please get rid of all these FSL made up positions. And the contractors too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole debate about foreign aid is a distraction. If you don’t like what USAID is doing or where the money is going, take it up with Congress.

I’m shocked that people think these edicts from King Trump (really, Elon) are fine just because they target groups or agencies they dislike. You’re walking right into a dictatorship— and you’re fine with it. Unbelievable.

So true and incredibly frightening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole debate about foreign aid is a distraction. If you don’t like what USAID is doing or where the money is going, take it up with Congress.

I’m shocked that people think these edicts from King Trump (really, Elon) are fine just because they target groups or agencies they dislike. You’re walking right into a dictatorship— and you’re fine with it. Unbelievable.

So true and incredibly frightening.

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please get rid of all these FSL made up positions. And the contractors too.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USAID does have a Buy America policy.

Yes, but a lot of the programs have legislative authority to get around it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USAID does have a Buy America policy.

Yes, but a lot of the programs have legislative authority to get around it.

Which means Congress has directed USAID to do something, not that USAID is trying to seal something past taxpayers. If USAID didn’t use those authorities (given by Congress) they would be accused of wasting taxpayer money.

[Anonymous]

Sneak, not seal

[Anonymous]

FWIW, a big part of the reason USAID uses a lot of contractors is that a lot of its work isn't permanent. For example, 2 years ago we didn't need a big humanitarian operation in Gaza. But, we need one now, and the only way to quickly do that is to use contractors, PSCs and indefinite quantity contracts.

The people I know in USAID are the kind of people who can quickly deliver humanitarian aid of the right kind in order to support the current ceasefire agreement in Gaza, say. Or, speed food to a famine so that the people enduring the famine don't migrate across borders and cause instability in neighboring countries.

If you did these functions through USG federal career employees, it would be hard to fire them when the famine was over or the conflict came to a peace agreement and people went home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3 re-orgs in 5 years. An order back to the office without actual seats for everyone. Constant elevation and then demotion of new, shiny topics. A cadre of young, insular, self-admiring and inexperienced politicals who are there to claim the mantle of others' ideas and kiss the ring for flashy leaders. A movement away from the core development mission and towards hot policy issues. A leader who is obsessed with herself and a team who promotes her every move (look! soccer with poor brown kids!). Meanwhile, a dysfunctional bureaucracy focused on process, sludge, and insider connections that keeps the Agency understaffed and the humans who work there demoralized and over worked.

of course it is

shut the entire agency. today

that is what US voters want.

and stop with the stupid claims about essential work. it doesn't help my children effort health care or buy a house. Stop with giving the taxpayer money to anyone but US citizens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 re-orgs in 5 years. An order back to the office without actual seats for everyone. Constant elevation and then demotion of new, shiny topics. A cadre of young, insular, self-admiring and inexperienced politicals who are there to claim the mantle of others' ideas and kiss the ring for flashy leaders. A movement away from the core development mission and towards hot policy issues. A leader who is obsessed with herself and a team who promotes her every move (look! soccer with poor brown kids!). Meanwhile, a dysfunctional bureaucracy focused on process, sludge, and insider connections that keeps the Agency understaffed and the humans who work there demoralized and over worked.

of course it is

shut the entire agency. today

that is what US voters want.

and stop with the stupid claims about essential work. it doesn't help my children effort health care or buy a house. Stop with giving the taxpayer money to anyone but US citizens.

Are you even a US citizen? Hard to tell with how you write.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 re-orgs in 5 years. An order back to the office without actual seats for everyone. Constant elevation and then demotion of new, shiny topics. A cadre of young, insular, self-admiring and inexperienced politicals who are there to claim the mantle of others' ideas and kiss the ring for flashy leaders. A movement away from the core development mission and towards hot policy issues. A leader who is obsessed with herself and a team who promotes her every move (look! soccer with poor brown kids!). Meanwhile, a dysfunctional bureaucracy focused on process, sludge, and insider connections that keeps the Agency understaffed and the humans who work there demoralized and over worked.

of course it is

shut the entire agency. today

that is what US voters want.

and stop with the stupid claims about essential work. it doesn't help my children effort health care or buy a house. Stop with giving the taxpayer money to anyone but US citizens.

Are you even a US citizen? Hard to tell with how you write.

imagine if Russia or China wanted to help the poor people in Herndon, to further their foreign policy interests.

could you image they come in and provide funds to build housing or improve water or build infrastructure etc. You know the leaders in power will have their hands in the process, taking as much as they can. and the projects would be oriented toward what the powerful want and not what is good for the workers.

USAID is that on a huge scale. The entire department should be eliminated now.

[Anonymous]

If they shut USAID down then it wouldn't change or affect US citizens or residents in any way so why keep it running. Place employees somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 re-orgs in 5 years. An order back to the office without actual seats for everyone. Constant elevation and then demotion of new, shiny topics. A cadre of young, insular, self-admiring and inexperienced politicals who are there to claim the mantle of others' ideas and kiss the ring for flashy leaders. A movement away from the core development mission and towards hot policy issues. A leader who is obsessed with herself and a team who promotes her every move (look! soccer with poor brown kids!). Meanwhile, a dysfunctional bureaucracy focused on process, sludge, and insider connections that keeps the Agency understaffed and the humans who work there demoralized and over worked.

of course it is

shut the entire agency. today

that is what US voters want.

and stop with the stupid claims about essential work. it doesn't help my children effort health care or buy a house. Stop with giving the taxpayer money to anyone but US citizens.

Are you even a US citizen? Hard to tell with how you write.

imagine if Russia or China wanted to help the poor people in Herndon, to further their foreign policy interests.

could you image they come in and provide funds to build housing or improve water or build infrastructure etc. You know the leaders in power will have their hands in the process, taking as much as they can. and the projects would be oriented toward what the powerful want and not what is good for the workers.

USAID is that on a huge scale. The entire department should be eliminated now.

Why didn’t you answer the question? Are you a US citizen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they shut USAID down then it wouldn't change or affect US citizens or residents in any way so why keep it running. Place employees somewhere else.

Whether USAID should exist is a foreign policy question, separate from whether it is doing what it was designed to do, but I'll go ahead anyway on the foreign policy question.

We live in an interconnected world. Diseases don't stop at the border. Economic prosperity doesn't stop at the border. Do you want more refugees fleeing from war, famine, rampant crime and corruption fleeing to other countries in such numbers that the region is destabilized? Do you want more lawless states that breed terrorism? Do you want more terrorist organizations winning the hearts and minds of people by providing basic social services (clean water, safety, education, jobs)?
The world is safer the more secure everyone is in that world. It might not effect you tomorrow if USAID shuts down, but it will effect you eventually.