Rubio Delegates DOGE Staffer to Oversee What's Left of USAID
Source: Bloomberg
March 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM EDT
Secretary of State Marco Rubio delegated oversight of what’s left of USAID to a staffer with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, in another step toward dismantling the aid agency despite several court challenges. Rubio designated his authority over the US Agency for International Development to Jeremy Lewin, according to an email sent to State Department staff by the State Department’s director of foreign assistance, Peter Marocco.
Lewin, who will serve as deputy administrator for policy and programs, was the DOGE team member who helped lead a review that saw the Trump administration slash billions of dollars in aid programs. Marocco, a loyalist of President Donald Trump, had previously overseen the push to strip USAID of its programs. He wrote in the email that he was giving up the USAID post and returning to State.
“It’s been my honor to assist Secretary Rubio in his leadership of USAID through some difficult stages to pivot this enterprise away from its abuses of the past,” Marocco wrote in the email. “Now that USAID is under control, accountable and stable, I am going to return to my post as the Director of Foreign Assistance to bring value back to the American people.”
While Marocco and DOGE staff have repeatedly criticized USAID as plagued by abuse, they’ve offered little evidence of widespread fraud or waste. A senior USAID official who was later placed on leave warned in early March that the dismantling of the agency “resulted in the U.S. Government’s failure to implement critical lifesaving activities” that would lead to preventable deaths and destabilization.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-19/rubio-delegates-doge-staffer-to-oversee-what-s-left-of-usaid
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Last edited Wed Mar 19, 2025, 02:41 PM - Edit history (1)
All hail DOGE, eh, little worm?
