U.S. Agency for International Development employees who showed up Monday at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., were turned away because the Trump administration canceled USAID's lease. This is less than a month after the president signed an executive order ceasing all foreign aid ‒ setting off a cascade of suffering as millions of people worldwide are cut off from lifesaving work.

What most Americans don’t realize is that when USAID doors were shuttered, businesses across America also lost valuable income, and thousands of American citizens lost their own livelihoods. 

As the leader of the agency’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance for three years, I am no stranger to the vital impact that USAID has on the lives of people around the world. But I am also no stranger to the vital impact that USAID has on the lives of Americans. 

USAID sources food aid directly from American farmers

When USAID provides food aid to people in need, we source 41% of that food directly from American farmers ‒ approximately $2 billion in food aid purchased from American farms in states across the country: everything from wheat from Kansas, soybean oil from Iowa to peanut products from Georgia. 

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Now, these American-grown products are at risk of being wasted.

More than 500,000 tons of American food commodities ‒ valued at over $450 million ‒ are stuck. Grown by farmers in the country’s heartland, this food includes corn and cornmeal, lentils, pinto beans, sorghum, vegetable oil and yellow split peas.

The food has been purchased, but in the cruelty and chaos of the closure of USAID, those responsible for getting the food to the most needy are not getting paid: putting both the world’s poorest and American farms at risk.

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And while some lifesaving food programs have received waivers in the past week, U.S. government funds remain unavailable.

In one instance, almost $200 million in emergency food aid bound for South Sudan ‒ where 729,000 children under five suffer from severe acute malnutrition ‒ is sitting undelivered in ports in Kenya.

Humanitarian partners, private contractors in the United States are now on furlough

On top of this, USAID works directly with humanitarian partners and private contracting companies based in the United States. These companies collectively employ thousands of American workers, many of whom have been furloughed ‒ with no knowledge of where their next paycheck will come from. 

They come from all walks of life, and they are some of the most dedicated and patriotic Americans I’ve ever known. These men and women are doctors and nurses; social workers and wildland firefighters; logisticians and agronomists. About 12% are military veterans who, at USAID, found a way to continue public service when they left the military.

No matter their role, these folks share a simple mission: They came to work every day to help people and to save lives. They did this in challenging circumstances, far away from home. On behalf of the American people, they worked around the clock, often deploying with less than 24 hours notice to some of the most difficult and dangerous environments in the world – including in war zones. 

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During my time leading the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance – and indeed, for decades before I came to USAID – Republicans and Democrats in Congress continuously supported USAID on a bipartisan basis. People in both parties agreed that providing aid to communities in their moments of greatest need is the right thing to do, and the smart thing as well – because it makes us safer, healthier and more prosperous here at home.

Supporters included new Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who's also now acting director of USAID.

When USAID teams responded to Ebola in Congo and Uganda, they helped contain the disease's spread ‒ protecting Americans, too. When USAID teams responded to biblical flooding in Pakistan, they created the goodwill that reopened diplomatic channels critical to national security. 

I was proud to do this work: work that saved millions of lives and showed the goodness of the American people, and work that united people across the aisle. USAID efforts were celebrated on both sides because they not only showed the world our compassion but also projected our power – improving our national security, advancing stability and opening markets for American businesses in the process.   

Now, these patriotic Americans and their partners are sidelined and maligned. In a workforce of 13,000 only about 300 have been told they will keep their jobs. Of those, only a few dozen remain who specialize in lifesaving humanitarian assistance.

The entire USAID website has gone dark. Our partner staff in crisis zones around the world are not getting paid, including for work that they have already done. And conspiracy theories about the work of the agency, boosted by our adversaries, threaten the safety of them and their families.

The dedicated public servants of USAID serve throughout different administrations, and they know that elections have consequences. They know that with new presidents there will be new approaches. And indeed there are opportunities to make the work more efficient.

There are lawful ways to realign priorities and even downsize. But this shock-and-awe, razed-earth strategy to eliminate USAID ‒ without the input of the people’s representatives in Congress ‒ is not it.

Sarah Charles, now a stay-at-home mother, is a former leader of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development.