Rep. John Olszewski on Monday excoriated President Donald Trump and Elon Musk trying to gut the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a violation of the separation of powers, and warned that they would move to taking away other benefits next.
“I’m just a bumpkin American government teacher, but I know this: USAID is an independent agency by law, and changing that law, as has been said, requires an act of Congress,” the Maryland Democrat said at a rally for USAID workers.”
“Today, it’s USAID,” Olszewski added. “Tomorrow, it’s our health care, it’s Social Security, it’s our livelihoods, it’s our freedoms.”
Musk and his allies at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have upended USAID over the past few days. Over the weekend, DOGE gained access to classified USAID information, including intelligence reports, a former official told the Associated Press. Two top security chiefs at USAID had been placed on leave after they refused to turn over classified material to DOGE. The USAID website then vanished without an explanation, and Musk said Trump agreed to “shut down” the agency.
At least 600 USAID employees reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight and were blocked from entering the agency’s headquarters Monday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday claimed he now runs the agency, putting its future — and the future of employees and the foreign assistance it sends to millions of people around the world — in question.
Olszewski and several other Democrats at the rally condemned Musk and argued any executive branch attempt to withhold funding from USAID, shutter it, or block employees from working — all things that happened Monday or that Musk floated — was illegal without congressional approval since Congress created the U.S. foreign assistance organization as part of a 1961 law.
They also slammed Musk and DOGE for getting access to a Treasury Department system that pays almost all of the United States’ bills. Critics fear Musk and his DOGE team getting direct access to the system — which few people have access to — means he could unilaterally cut off payments to any programs he or Trump do not approve of, even though the vast majority of federal payments, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, are required under law.
For his part, Musk has in the past called for cutting $1 trillion from the federal budget, and reportedly said he believes the government is sending out money to agencies or people who do not deserve the money or do not exist.
