USAID official put on leave for memos saying funding cut will “result in preventable death”

Washington — A USAID deputy administrator has been put on leave after issuing memos that said that the organization had failed to implement humanitarian assistance due to “political leadership” at USAID, the Department of State and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

He wrote it will “will no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale,” two sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.

Nick Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for USAID Global Health, issued two memos to the Bureau of Global Health on Friday, one that laid out how the Bureau for Global Health had carried out its terminations, while the other had critiques of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s temporary waiver and the overall pause on foreign assistance.

A source familiar with Enrich being put on leave told CBS News that “I’ve seen the full memo and Nick was put on leave for trying to do his job and then documenting what is happening.”

Enrich cited DOGE in particular as creating “intentional and/or unintentional obstacles that have wholly prevented implementation” of lifesaving humanitarian assistance. 

The memo said this is the result of several actions, including refusal to pay for assistance activities conducted or goods and services rendered, DOGE blocking and restricting access to USAID payment systems, the “ever-changing guidance as to what qualifies as ‘livesaving,'” and most recently, the “sweeping terminations.”

The memo lays out a timeline of how the administration’s impact on waivers has hurt USAID’s effort for humanitarian assistance. It notes that the Bureau for Global Health got approval to conduct activities to respond to an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, but USAID was never able to draw down the funds and did not receive any funds as of the issuing of the memo on Feb. 28. 

The memo also says that as of Feb. 8, the Bureau for Global Health was told by the secretary of state that there are “tranches” of awards identified for termination, including of awards that were previously given waivers. While Enrich was reviewing the awards slated for termination, he writes that DOGE adviser Jeremy Lewin emailed him telling him to stop and that it is “delaying the timeline processing of these termination notices.”

The memos are the latest in a series of developments for USAID, the government organization that provides humanitarian assistance around the world. The organization, founded in 1961, has been the target of the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-helmed DOGE.

Thousands of USAID workers were placed on leave or terminated as of Feb. 23.

The chaos surrounding USAID has caused disruptions to the supply chain and services for a variety of global life-saving causes have faltered. Musk posted on social media over the weekend that funding for Edesia, a Rhode Island-based company that makes a lifesaving paste for severely malnourished infants, had been restored and the company’s payments should resume this week. 

In:
• DOGE
• USAID