The restructuring of USAID and reductions in U.S. foreign aid will disrupt humanitarian and development programs across the world, which could worsen global health outcomes, destabilize security environments, accelerate democratic backsliding and create opportunities for rival powers to expand their influence. Efforts by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to restructure the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government's humanitarian aid agency, accelerated on Feb. 3 after more than a thousand USAID contractors, many from the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, lost access overnight to the agency's systems. Later the same day, after signage was removed from USAID's headquarters in Washington D.C. and its official government website was taken down, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was stepping in as acting administrator for USAID and notified Congress of the agency's ''potential reorganization.'' U.S. officials reported that USAID would be incorporated under the U.S. State Department,...
