Employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are being placed on administrative leave with pay “until further notice,” according to letters reviewed by The Hill.
Employees must be available by phone and email during business hours, according to the notice, which provides an email for them to contact “to end that.”
The letters come after most USAID employees lost access to internal systems over the weekend as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) put the agency through a “woodchipper.”
One USAID employee said they felt “helpless” after receiving the letter.
Another said they were “disappointed that our lawmakers in the majority seem complicit or at least tacitly approve.”
One employee who lost access Monday said they had not received a copy of the letter to their personal email.
The letter was sent by Pete Marocco, who Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly tapped Tuesday to run USAID.
Neither USAID nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment from The Hill and questions about how many USAID employees received these letters.
Developing.
