Hundreds of USAID contractors put on leave, terminated amid US freeze on global aid

That short email that went out to all staff afterwards ... is clearly designed to instill fear,

said a career senior executive service official who was put on administrative leave on Monday

You want to be able to do whatever you want without any guardrails? You get rid of the lawyers,

the official said

People should be really scared about how this dismantling is happening at agencies they don't give a second thought about on a day-to-day basis,

the official said

As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions,

Gray wrote

If this is not reversed, it will wreck U.S. foreign aid... It would permanently weaken USAID,

said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID official who is now president of Refugees International

People are calling it the Monday afternoon massacre,

said Francisco Bencosme, who was USAID's China policy lead until earlier this month

We have identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the president’s executive orders and the mandate from the American people,

he wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO

This is a huge morale hit,

said a former senior Trump administration official who was also told of the move

Evelyn Farkasamerican intelligence analyst

All the organizations are having emergency meetings to figure out how they manage the little cash they have left,

said Evelyn Farkas of the McCain Institute, a non-partisan organization that promotes democracy and human rights

Without these resources, 6,000 newly arrived refugees we are currently serving may face the prospect of eviction and food insecurity at a time of critical need,

said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, an aid organization

We understand and respect a new administration’s desire to evaluate programs,

said Keith Webster, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Defense and Aerospace Council

The pause on all foreign assistance means a complete halt,

Ken Jackson, USAID’s assistant to the administrator for management and resources wrote in an agency-wide email to some 10,000 employees

We operate on a shoestring budget. In 30 days you’ll start to see a very significant cash crunch across the board and probably some bankruptcies,

said the head of one non-governmental group that receives State Department and USAID funding, who was granted anonymity as they feared they would lose future contracts if they spoke out publicly

They’re unable to continue, they’re frustrated, they don’t know what to do,

Tshabalala said about the health care workers whose organizations received letters from USAID to stop work

I’m not sure anyone knows all the details right now and key folks are almost certainly trying to unpack the actions and implications,

a former senior Pentagon official said

These lives depend on an uninterrupted supply of medicines,

the two Democrats wrote

We cannot afford 90 days because it will cost us lives,

she said about the expected duration of the aid freeze

State Department counterterrorism advisers around the world may need to fly home since their contracts are also funded out of — guess what — foreign assistance,

one U.S. official familiar with the matter said