03.28.25

Senator Murray Statement on Trump and Musk Moving to Permanently Abolish USAID


Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair, issued the following statement on the Trump administration illegally moving to permanently shutter the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

 

“Trump and Musk shuttering USAID leaves a dangerous void our adversaries will fill, punishes dedicated Americans who honorably chose to serve their country, and is quite literally causing preventable deaths all across the globe. Trump is carving out a foreign policy legacy of diminished U.S leadership, abandoned allies, starving children, spreading diseases, and millions dead. History will never forget if he succeeds. Trump is not just turning America away from the world—he is turning the world away from America. We cannot let him torpedo decades of hard-won goodwill and global progress.

 

“USAID’s existence as an independent agency has long been enshrined in law and affirmed by bipartisan majorities in Congress year after year in annual appropriations, including in House Republicans’ full-year continuing resolution enacted into law just a few short weeks ago. Now, Trump and Musk want to make the destruction they have already wrought permanent by officially abolishing USAID. To achieve their detrimental goals lawfully, Trump and Musk would need to work with Congress and pass a law. Needless to say: they haven’t done that—they’ve merely sent us a heads-up.

 

“It is impossible to fully measure—or undo—the harm Trump and Musk have already caused—both in terms of lives lost and America’s credibility on the world stage. While this administration claims that it will allow lifesaving aid to finally flow again—which we know it hasn’t yet—and claims it will carry out core USAID missions at the State Department instead, the simple fact is State lacks the capacity to immediately assume these responsibilities and it is incredibly difficult to rebuild what you just burnt to the ground. This lawlessness must end—people’s lives, our country’s security, and America’s word depend on it.”

 

###