From the Frontlines of U.S. Foreign Aid: A Final Word Before the Lights Go Out
By current USAID staff being separated as part of the agency’s closure
On July 1, thousands of U.S. government employees, including career diplomats, will be let go from the federal government– part of a rushed, contested, and possibly unlawful dismantling of one of America’s most powerful tools of global influence: the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). By September 2, the remaining staff will be permanently separated and the agency that has advanced development, stability, and soft power for over 60 years will cease to exist.
We are among those being separated. Most of us will be gone in a week. The rest will follow in two months, when the doors are formally closed. Before we go, we want to make one thing perfectly clear: This isn’t just about jobs lost. It’s about U.S. power forfeited.
The way this closure has unfolded — abruptly, opaquely, and without accountability — represents more than just a bureaucratic failure. It is a strategic collapse. It betrays the values of merit-based civil service that have underpinned decades of bipartisan investment in development as a key pillar of national security. And it sends a clear signal to our allies and competitors alike: the United States is willing to gut its own global capacity and abandon its public servants without explanation.
Over our careers, we have advised U.S. Special Forces in war zones, negotiated economic programs, and built development partnerships that directly served American interests, while expanding global goodwill. Our teams helped design energy and biotech programs that placed U.S. technology ahead of Chinese alternatives. We supported critical minerals efforts and labor reforms that directly benefited U.S. consumers. We prevented deadly disease outbreaks from spreading across borders, including our own. We issued early warnings before natural disasters hit. We mobilized quickly in humanitarian crises, not just to save lives — but because people remember who shows up to help them when they need it most.
National security wasn’t a distant concept in our work. It was the driver.
Every program we ran, every partnership we built, was intended to strengthen America’s strategic position in a complex world. We know — because we saw it firsthand — that helping an ally become more prosperous didn’t weaken the United States. It made our collective position stronger.
What’s happening now is not just a loss of institutional memory. It is a willful dismantling of tools that protect American interests. It signals to our global partners that U.S. leadership is conditional, unpredictable, and easily discarded.
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The void left by the quick and haphazard dismantling of U.S. foreign assistance will outlast us. The reputational harm, the broken partnerships, the instability left unaddressed — these are not abstract costs. They are real, and they mark a retreat that will weaken U.S. influence for years to come.
This article won’t reverse what happens on July 1. The damage has already been inflicted — by a handful of individuals eager for political spectacle, not strategic governance. They do not understand the cost of what they’ve broken. But silence, in this moment, would be complicity. We are speaking now — together — because the historical record deserves clarity.
This was wrong. And we tried to stop it.
The views expressed are those of the authors in their personal capacity and do not reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. government.
USAIDForeign PolicySoft PowerPublic ServiceCivil ServantsDevelopmentGovernment Shutdown
