The U.S. Agency of International Development is expected to be reduced to about 290 workers of the more than 5,000 foreign service officers, civil servants and personal service contractors currently employed at the agency, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
Most of the approximately 3,000 Institutional Support Contractors have already been fired or furloughed. The status of the approximately 5,000 foreign service nationals serving around the world is not yet clear.
The bureaus of Humanitarian Assistance, Global Health and Management are expected to retain the largest numbers of staff, but under the expected plan, there will only be 12 people dedicated to the entire continent of Africa and eight people for all of Asia.
Europe, which had approximately 600 dedicated employees in 2024 between both the field and D.C. offices, will now be served by just 10 people.
Thousands of USAID employees learned they would be placed on administrative leave starting at 11:59 p.m. on Friday through a message posted on USAID.gov earlier this week. USAID personnel overseas were given 30 days to return to the United States.
Asked about additional guidance for USAID employees facing uncertainty after the announcement that workers would be put on leave, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the actions were not meant to be “disruptive.”
“We’re not trying to be disruptive to people’s personal lives,” Rubio told reporters in Santo Domingo on Thursday during a joint media availability with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader. “We’re not trying to — we’re not being punitive here, but this is the only way we’ve been able to get cooperation from USAID.”
Rubio said that exceptions would be made for employees with extraordinary circumstances, saying, “We didn’t list them all, but we’re willing to listen to those.”
The American Foreign Service Association, a union representing 1,800 foreign service officers working for USAID, and the American Federation of Government Employees sued the Trump administration on Thursday, alleging efforts to dissolve the foreign assistance agency “have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors.”
“Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization. And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit asks a federal court in Washington, D.C., to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction directing the administration to halt its shutdown of operations at the agency.
The American Foreign Service Association had criticized the Trump administration in a statement Wednesday for “punishing dedicated public servants and hurting their families for simply doing their jobs” when it recalled foreign service personnel from overseas.
“Beyond the damage to U.S. interests abroad, this decision will impose an enormous financial and logistical burden—costing American taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and overwhelming the personnel system responsible for managing the evacuation,” the group said.
The action at USAID is one of a series of efforts by the Trump administration to dramatically whittle down the federal workforce.
The administration last week said it would offer a buyout to roughly 2 million federal workers as Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, attempt to remake the federal government and abolish some of its agencies.
A federal judge in Boston on Thursday temporarily blocked the buyout offer pending a Monday hearing.
