Anna Maria Barry-Jester
Anna Maria Barry-Jester
@annamaria.bsky.social
Public health journalist with ProPublica
Overall, the bureau identified 72 activities that are life-saving. To date, none of these have been approved and no payments have been released, according to Enrich's memo. Then nearly all of them were terminated on Feb 27th.
March 2, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Then, on Feb 26, Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated 5,000 USAID programs all at once, including care for malaria, TB and HIV. Shortly after political appointees told Enrich that they'd made some mistakes. "There is an acknowledgement some may have been sent out in error."
March 2, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Then senior officials were told to start terminating some programs, including ones that had been flagged as life-saving.
March 2, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Starting Jan 29, staff scrambled to request life-saving waivers after all foreign aid was paused. Enrich sent an email on Jan 31st to three political appointees about waivers, but didn't get a response until Feb. 4, when one said to be "draconian" in what they approved.
March 2, 2025 at 11:39 PM
NEW: USAID's acting asst administrator, Nick Enrich, has been placed on leave after sharing a memo detailing how political appointees have "wholly prevented" staff from continuing life saving aid.
March 2, 2025 at 11:39 PM