Sen. Chris Van Hollen, left, D-Md., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., right, speak to a crowd gathered at the shuttered Washington, D.C., headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development on Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
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.