WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and 36 Senate colleagues sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing their deep concern regarding the growing chaos and dysfunction at the U.S. Department of State and the Trump Administration’s illegal attempt to destroy the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID is a critical pillar of U.S. national security strategy, providing lifesaving aid and development support around the world to help ensure stability. Yesterday, personnel at USAID were not permitted to enter the agency’s headquarters, and Elon Musk announced that President Donald Trump agreed to close the agency and move it under the State Department – which Trump has no legal authority to do. The Trump Administration, led by Musk, has also furloughed thousands of senior career civil servants, including two top security officials who denied Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency access to classified documents and systems.
“…We are deeply concerned by reports of not only growing chaos and dysfunction at the Department of State, but the Administration’s brazen and illegal attempts to destroy the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Mass personnel furloughs of dubious legality and abrupt, blanket stop-work orders without regard to relevant appropriations laws are causing immediate harm to U.S. national security, placing U.S. citizens at risk, disrupting life-saving work and breaking the U.S. government’s contractual obligations to private sector partners,” Heinrich and colleagues wrote.
The senators continued, “The Administration’s failure to consult with Congress prior to taking these steps violates the law and impedes Congress’s constitutional duty to conduct oversight of funding, personnel and the nation’s foreign policy. The Administration’s failure to expend funds appropriated on a bipartisan basis by Congress would violate the Impoundment Control Act.”
“Foreign assistance is critical to supporting U.S. strategic interests around the world. Foreign assistance protects U.S. national security, advances U.S. values, and ensures the U.S. is the partner of choice for everything from defense procurement to cutting edge scientific research. China, Russia and Iran are already moving rapidly to exploit the vacuum and instability left by the U.S.’s sudden global retreat,” wrote the senators.
They continued, “Every Administration has the right to review and adjust ongoing assistance programming. However, attempting to arbitrarily turn off core functions of a critical U.S. national security agency, without Congressional consideration or any metric-based review and absent legal authority to do so, is unprecedented and deeply disturbing.”
The letter is led by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Alongside Heinrich, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Angus S. King (I-Maine), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).
The full text of the letter is available here.
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