Dozens of contractors working on foreign-assistance funding for the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor were let go on Monday, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter.
Stop-work orders for all foreign-aid contracts went out last week, and contractors at the bureau applied for an exception, according to a person familiar. About 60 contractors who applied for the exception were ultimately denied and let go on Monday morning, which “wiped out” significant programs from the office, the source said.
The bureau, coined DRL, serves as the State Department’s entity to help advance democracy both within the U.S. and across the globe, and help coordinate nations’ human rights policies.
These developments, which have yet to be reported, mark the latest move in the rapidly developing saga of the Trump administration’s efforts to rein in and ultimately control how the federal government spends money. Trump allies, and conservative Republicans broadly, have long railed against certain types of foreign spending. But since retaking office, Trump has issued widespread funding freezes on foreign aid for 90 days, affecting everything from health initiatives to education with only a few initial exemptions for emergency assistance.
Much of the attention on the attacks on foreign assistance have been focused on the drastic changes underway at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that he had been made the acting head of USAID — after senior leadership officials were ousted. And on Monday, staffers were blocked from entering the Washington, D.C., headquarters.
As of Monday afternoon, the USAID website was still down, though Rubio denied that these moves amounted to the closure of the agency — as Elon Musk has indicated — instead being a part of its modification.
In the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he “love[s] the concept of it,” but that those running USAID “turned out to be radical-left lunatics,” and based the changes not on the idea of foreign assistance but on the people running it.
One former U.S. official, briefed on the contractors’ departure, said the push to stop foreign assistance is led by Pete Marocco, a first term Trump political appointee at USAID and official who was reportedly seen on camera inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 as well as Robert Destro, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for DRL.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
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Jasmine Wright and Reese Gorman are reporters at NOTUS.
Kate Nocera, a managing editor at NOTUS, contributed to this report.