Members of Congress refused entry to USAID agency shuttered by Trump administration
WASHINGTON — Democratic members of Congress were denied entry Monday to the U.S. Agency for International Development, after billionaire Elon Musk, empowered by President Donald Trump, worked to close the nation’s humanitarian arm.
Senators and House members rallied outside the agency’s shuttered headquarters in Washington, D.C., vowing to fight Musk’s actions over the weekend. That included sending individuals from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to forcefully access USAID’s computer systems and files.
“We are not going to let this injustice happen. Congress created this agency with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and if you want to change it, you got to change that law,” Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia told a large crowd that gathered outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, where the agency is housed.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen told a swarm of journalists and USAID employees that the Trump administration’s action against USAID was “illegal” and that he had been speaking to lawyers over the weekend.
“This is a clear violation of our law,” the Maryland Democrat told the crowd, which was dotted with homemade protest signs reading “USAID Must Be Saved” and “USAID Saves Lives.”
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who also joined the press conference, announced afterward that he would place a blanket hold on all of Trump’s State Department nominees going forward.
Connolly, Van Hollen, Schatz and several other Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Jamie Raskin and Johnny Olszewski of Maryland, Don Beyer of Virginia, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, were denied entry to USAID’s office following the outdoor press conference.
Employees received emails and text blasts telling them not to report to the building Monday.
Agency manages $40B in U.S. spending
The workforce of roughly 10,000 — two-thirds of which work overseas — manages projects and distributes funds that reach approximately 130 countries. The agency was appropriated roughly $40 billion in fiscal year 2023.
The agency, by statute, is an “independent establishment” and “under direct authority and policy guidance of the Secretary of State,” according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Speaking to reporters in El Salvador Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he is now the acting administrator for USAID.
Rubio told reporters that USAID “is involved in programs that run counter to what we’re trying to do in our national strategy” in any given country.
“It’s been 20 or 30 years where people have tried to reform it, and it refuses to reform, it refuses to cooperate,” Rubio said.
Early Monday, Musk said during a live conversation on X Spaces that Trump “agreed we should shut it down,” The Associated Press reported. Recordings of live X Spaces are not automatically publicly available afterward. Musk was joined by GOP Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Mike Lee of Utah during the live chat.
The agency’s website, USAID.gov, and its X social media account went dark Saturday.
Democrats demand update from Rubio
Individuals identifying themselves as DOGE personnel entered USAID headquarters over the weekend to access the agency’s computers and files, CNN reported. At least two USAID security officials were put on administrative leave after initially refusing to grant access.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office establishing DOGE for the purposes of “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
Democrats on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations have asked Rubio for an “immediate update” on who accessed USAID’s system and files on Saturday and whether they reviewed classified and personally identifiable information.
“While some of the individuals purported to have security clearances, it is unclear whether those who accessed secure classified facilities had proper clearance or what they were seeking to access. We understand that the security guards present at the facility were threatened when they raised questions,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, wrote in a letter co-signed by all Democrats on the panel.
Shaheen said the committee, which has jurisdiction over monitoring international aid, was not notified that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency was planning to visit USAID’s headquarters.
“Following this incident, the senior management of the Office of Security, which secures USAID personnel and facilities and safeguards national security information, were placed on administrative leave. The potential access of sensitive, even classified, files, which may include the personally identifiable information (PII) of Americans working with USAID, and this incident as a whole, raises deep concerns about the protection and safeguarding of matters related to U.S. national security,” Shaheen wrote.
DOGE representative Katie Miller wrote on X Sunday that “No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”
Trump told journalists Sunday that USAID is “run by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out and we’ll make a decision.”
In a post on his social media platform X Sunday, Musk wrote that the agency is “a criminal organization.”
States Newsroom reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment.
Just hours into his presidency, Trump signed an executive order to halt foreign assistance programs for 90 days.
Work stops at consumer finance watchdog
Newly installed U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ordered the stoppage of numerous activities at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Rulemaking, enforcement actions, litigation and public communication are now halted, according to a memo from Bessent to employees that was obtained by NPR and Politico.
Trump appointed Bessent as the bureau’s acting director after dismissing its former head, Rohit Chopra, a Biden appointee.
The independent bureau within the Federal Reserve system was established by Congress in 2010 as a safeguard for consumers following the Great Recession.
Last updated 6:23 p.m., Feb. 3, 2025
Ashley Murray covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include domestic policy and appropriations. SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
OPINION
ElonGate: The Scandals Stretch Out
by Tom H. Hastings
It is on. Elon is burrowing into a hostile takeover of the US government, regulations, and economy.
He is clearly quite used to getting everything he wants by any devious means or blatant powerplay. Donald Trump is turning out to be just a minor buffoon at Elon's service, a pliable, if blustering, Muskateer.
Elon bought him and he's now using him in many ways:
· Musk demanded access to more than $6 trillion in US government payouts--everything from Grandma's Social Security check and all her personal information to Medicare payments, government contracts, and literally tens of thousands of financial functions affecting every single American. Trump's indentured squad had to fire a few key folks to clear the way, but now, in the name of efficiency, it's all there for Musk.
· Musk's team have denied officials at the United States Office of Personnel Management access to the workings of OPM and have instead installed themselves in those offices, moving luxury sofa beds into the DC offices on upper floors, offices with panoramic views accessible only with security escorts. Some 2.2 million workers are now subject to any treatment, job loss, and even pension loss.
· Remember that federal government building where you went to get much-needed unemployment insurance when the company you worked for laid off skilled workers? Yeah, chances are that building will close and be listed for sale as Musk begins shutting down some of the General Services Administration, putting buildings up for sale and terminating unknown numbers of some 7,500 building leases GSA administers.
This is tantamount to a blitzkrieg on the capacity of the US government to serve the US people and the pushback has begun.
· The Center for Biological Diversity and others have launched notice of lawsuits aimed at the openly self-enriching conflicts of interest in having a billionaire with massive government contracts now in charge of oversight of all those contracts. In stark terms, Musk's industries that have proven again and again to be bad actors in environmental pollution and yet now increasingly control the regulators. Conflict of interest red flags should be all over the field.
· When, some two weeks ago, Musk gave his infamous Nazi salute, the reactions were swift and categorical. Author Rivera Sun, for example, said, "Take that Nazi salute seriously. Last time, 70 million people died." She called for nonviolent people power in the streets.
· Some of the lawsuits assert that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is itself illegal under various laws such as the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
· While Democrats in office have criticized Musk, few Republicans are doing so--yet. In Europe, however, more political leadership is speaking out against Musk's stated support for the neo-Nazi AfD party. While the leaders of Italy and Hungary are pro-Musk, leadership in Norway, Germany, France, and Spain have denounced much of what Musk is doing globally.
· More and more independent citizen groups are beginning to formally oppose the most egregious of Musk's actions and words. When Musk posted that Germans should move past any guilt about the European Holocaust, for example, reactions were swift.
When Germany rolled over Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and other countries in the 1939-1940 offensive, many lost hope, seeing the ferocious Nazi military as unstoppable.
Then the world united and stopped it.
We can stop Musk too, but this time with what William James (echoed by Jimmy Carter some 66 years later) called the "moral equivalent of war." Nonviolent civil resistance, with a synthesis of the inside game (politics) and the outside game ("street heat"), holds the most promise. More regular folks need to start observing and then observers need to start taking action.
Watergate led to Nixon's downfall. ElonGate is a harbinger of defeat for Musk and Trump.
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Dr. Tom H. Hastings is Coördinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs at Portland State University. His views, however, are not those of any institution.
What $277 Million buys here.