National Security Professionals ask Congress to protest gutting of USAID
Open letter with bipartisan Support
I am among the many signatories of this letter:
February 12, 2025
The Honorable John R. Thune, Senate Majority Leader
The Honorable Charles E. Schumer, Senate Minority Leader
The Honorable Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House
The Honorable Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader
United States Capitol, Washington, DC
Dear Senators Thune and Schumer, and Representatives Johnson and Jeffries:
As former U.S. government officials who served in national security and humanitarian positions in both Democratic and Republican administrations, we write to ask you to take all steps in your power to urge rescission of the Trump administration executive orders and directives aimed at freezing U.S. foreign assistance and dismantling USAID. These directives inflict irreparable damage on hundreds of millions of people around the world, harm Americans by crippling our ability to protect U.S. citizens from disease and other harms, and invite China and other competitors to fill the gap we have created, thereby increasing their power and influence at our expense.
In the some 200 countries where hundreds of millions of people have benefitted from U.S. aid, the bulk of such support has been economic and humanitarian assistance. When Presidents, Cabinet Secretaries, and Members of Congress are welcomed in countries of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and South Asia, and Europe, the concrete manifestations of U.S. government support have been the humanitarian and development programs supported by USAID and the State Department’s humanitarian operations.
These operations represent less than one percent of the federal budget. At the same time, U.S. aid has amounted to between a quarter and a third of global assistance, roughly the same as the U.S. share of GDP among wealthy countries. It has given the United States enormous capacity for influence, while making our country the global leader in efforts to reduce human suffering and abject poverty.
These are the programs that President Trump and Elon Musk are decimating, as we write, while depriving the U.S. Congress of its constitutional and legislative roles.
It is difficult to capture in one letter the scope of what the Financial Times has accurately called the “willful sabotage of U.S. soft power.” But the human suffering that these cut-offs have caused is catastrophic and heartbreaking. Elon Musk’s measures have halted critical and highly effective life-saving initiatives, including programs that provide clean water to infants; healthcare to mothers who are expecting; food, shelter, and refuge for those fleeing persecution and disaster; and life-saving support to those suffering from disease.
In Kenya, Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere, aid to survivors of torture was stopped in its tracks. Children and adult victims of war and terror who have relied on the United States have been left without care. And in poorer countries around the world, thousands of women and girls will die in the next 90 days due to complications of childbirth that might otherwise have been avoided through interventions funded by Congress and administered by USAID.
Even the highly visible PEPFAR program to combat AIDS, started by President George W. Bush and responsible for saving some 25 million lives, was frozen. Clinics were closed and HIV sufferers were denied access to antiretrovirals. While some services were resumed, crucial programs remained suspended and millions are affected.
In our own country, the suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has led to tragic stories of thousands who were ready to travel to the United States, including Afghans who helped to support U.S. goals in their country. This modest and carefully managed program has revitalized declining communities and strengthened the U.S. economy, and persuaded other countries to do their fair share.
The tragic stories go on and on and on, from the curtailing of remarkable U.S. efforts to limit the spread of tuberculosis and eradicate polio, to the ending of programs that have built local economies and have thereby discouraged migration to the United States, to the abrupt halt of the USAID-supported Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), the gold standard for anticipating and monitoring famines worldwide.
Due to horror stories shared with Members of Congress about the impact of the funding freeze, Trump administration officials have added some exemptions to the ban. But this piecemeal effort is a wholly inefficient, inadequate, and cynical way to proceed with reform. It has merely left hundreds of millions around the world in disbelief at how the United States could act in such an arbitrary and cavalier manner.
History will not look kindly on this avoidable tragedy – for the hundreds of millions in need, for U.S. leadership and moral authority around the world, and for U.S. national security, as global competitors like China and Russia rush to fill the gap we have created. It will be part of the legacy of this Congress if not reversed.
We implore you to urge President Trump to rescind the freeze, which curtails U.S. efforts to provide critical humanitarian aid and development support around the world, and undermines the Constitutional authority of Congress. In particular, we ask that you urge the President to resume the funding and operations of USAID and its overseas offices, as well as the humanitarian programs of the Department of State.
Sincerely,
Thomas R. Pickering
Former Under Secretary for Political Affairs and former Ambassador to the United Nations, Russia, India, Israel, Jordan, El Salvador, and Nigeria
J. Brian Atwood
Former Administrator, USAID, and Former Undersecretary of State for Management
William Taft, IV
Former Deputy Secretary of Defense, former General Counsel, Department of Defense
Nancy J. Powell
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
General Michael V Hayden
CIA and NSA
Thomas J Scanlan Jr
Brig Gen, USAF (Ret.), Former Director Operations, U.S. Space Command
Former Director SIGINT, NRO
Christopher Kojm
Former Chair, National Intelligence Council
Glyn Davies
Former Executive Secretary, National Security Council
Former Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand
John D. Hutson
RADM JAGC USN (Ret.)
Ambassador Susan Rice
Former National Security Advisor
Jock Covey
Former Special Assistant to the President, U.S. National Security Council
Eric Schwartz
Former NSC Senior Director and Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
Jonathan Treacy
Major General, USAF, Retired
Former Director of Staff, National Guard Bureau
Hon. David B. Buckley
Former Inspector General Central Intelligence Agency
Rear Admiral John Butler
USN (Retired)
Cmdr. Philip D. Hogg USN-Ret.
General (Retired) Frank Grass
Tom Malinowski
Former Member of Congress, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Rights, and Labor
Rand Beers
Former Deputy Homeland Security Advisor
John Shattuck
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Rights, and Labor
Carlos E. Martinez, Brigadier General, USAF, Retired
Former Mobilization Assistant to the Air Force Director of Warfighting Integration
Richard A Boucher
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Brian P. McKeon
Former Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources
Anthony Lake
Former U.S. National Security Advisor
Elizabeth L. Carswell
Former Chief of Staff, Intelligence Community Advanced Campaign Cell
Marie Yovanovitch
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan
Anne M. Peniston
Former Deputy Director, Office of Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition, Global Health Bureau, USAID
Elizabeth Millard
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Bruce Riedel
Former CIA officer and Former Special Assistant to the President.
Harry Thomas
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Thomas Countryman
Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation
Robert Goldberg
Former Deputy Associate Director for International Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President
Alexander R. Vershbow
Former Ambassador to NATO, Russia, and the Republic of Korea
Dana Mansuri, Career Minister (Ret.)
U.S. Agency for International Development
Aaron David Miller
Former Deputy Middle East Coordinator, Department of State
Gordon Adams
Former Associate Director for National Security Programs, Office of Management and Budget
Donald Camp
Former National Security Council Senior Director for South Asia
Charles Kupchan
Former Special Assistant to the President, National Security Council
Amit Pandya
Former Director for Humanitarian Assistance, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Charles Ray
Former Ambassador to Cambodia
Teresita C. Schaffer
Former United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka
Stephen Rapp
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice
David Sandalow
Former Under Secretary of Energy, Assistant Secretary of State, and Senior Director, National Security Council
Mary Curtin
United States Foreign Service Officer (Ret.)
John Prendergast
Former Director for African Affairs, National Security Council
A. Peter Burleigh
Former Ambassador to the United Nations, to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and for Counter-Terrorism
Joe Sestak, Vice Admiral (Ret.)
Former Member of Congress, former Director, Defense Directorate, National Security Council
Earl Anthony Wayne
Former Ambassador of the United States to Mexico and Argentina
Former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan
Susan Reichle
Former Counselor and Senior Foreign Service officer, USAID
Karl F. Inderfurth
Former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs
Edmund Hull
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Frank Loy
Former Undersecretary of State
Frank Jannuzi
Former Intelligence Analyst, U.S. Department of State
Peter Eicher
Former U.S. Deputy Representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights
Laura Kennedy
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Kurt D. Donnelly
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Robert C. Perry
Ambassador (Ret.)
Frances D. Cook
United States Ambassador (Ret.) and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Morton H. Halperin.
Former Director, Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State
Tom Hushek
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Ricardo Zuniga
Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State
The Reverend Anne E. Derse, U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Former Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Lithuania
Jamie Metzl
Former Director, National Security Council
Bruce Wharton
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
John M. Evans
Former Ambassador to Armenia
James Bishop
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Mattie R. Sharpless
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Johnnie Carson
Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and former U.S. Ambassador to Kenya
Genta Holmes
Former Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs, USAID
Tom Engle
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, former Minister Counselor, U.S. Foreign Service
Robert D. Bauerlein
Former Director, Office of Policy and Resources, U.S. Department of State
Deborah K Jones U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Richard Kauzlarich
Former Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ambassador (Ret.) Gerald M. Feierstein
Annie Pforzheimer
U.S. State Department Minister Counselor (Ret)
Former Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy Kabul
Lynne Weil
Senior Advisor, Public Diplomacy
Department of State
Pamela White
Ambassador (Ret.)
Steve Andreasen
Former Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control
National Security Council
Margot Ellis
Former Acting Assistant Administrator – Europe & Eurasia
USAID
Chester A. Crocker
Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Ruth A. Davis
Former Ambassador to the Republic of Benin and former Director General of the U.S. Foreign Service
Jane Stromseth,
Former Deputy for Global Criminal Justice, U.S. Department of State, and former Director, National Security Council staff
Aurelia E. Brazeal
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific, former Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia, to Kenya, and to Ethiopia
Ken Brill
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Charles O. Blaha
Foreign Service Officer (Ret.), U.S. Department of State
Mosina Jordan
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
James A. Schear
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
Jeffrey Meer
Former Special Assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs
John S. Wolf
Former Assistant Secretary for Non Proliferation
Robert F. Cekuta
Former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan
Amb. (Ret.) Eric S. Rubin
Former U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Dr. Kenneth Stringer
CIA Senior Executive (retired)
Carol Bellamy
Former Director, Peace Corps
Bernadette M. Allen
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Steven A. Browning
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Michael Schiffer, Former Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Asia, USAID and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia, Department of Defense
Liliana Ayalde
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Keith J. Masback
Former Department of Defense and Intelligence Community Senior Executive
Heather Hurlburt
Former Chief of Staff, U.S. Special Trade Representative
Robert A. Flaten
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Merrie Blocker
Senior Foreign Service Officer (Ret.), U.S. Department of State
Stephen Rickard
Former Senior Advisor for South Asian Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Eileen A. Malloy
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Jonah Blank
Former Policy Director, South and Southeast Asia, Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Desaix Myers
Former Senior Foreign Service Officer, Mission Director USAID, Professor of National Security Studies, National War College
Ambassador Miriam Sapiro
Former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
Uzra Zeya
Former Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights
Barnett Rubin
Former Senior Advisor, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
James Holthaus
Former U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army
Robert Riley
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Nancy McEldowney
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Michele Thoren Bond
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs
Hon. Aaron S. Williams
Former Career Minister, USAID
Arsalan Suleman
Former Acting U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
David Abramowitz
Former Chief Counsel, House Foreign Affairs Committee and Former Acting Assistant Legal Adviser for Near Eastern Affairs, Department of State
Jeff Davidow
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs, and former Ambassador to Mexico, Venezuela, and Zambia
Frederick Barton
Ambassador (Ret.) and former Assistant Secretary of State
Nancy Ely Raphel
Former U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Former Director, U.S. State Department Office of Policy Planning
Robert M. Clay
Former Deputy Assistant Administrator, USAID
Jonathan Winer
Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement and former Special Envoy for Libya
Sarah Charles
Former Assistant to the Administrator, USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs
Michael McFaul
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia
Clyde D. Taylor
Former U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay
Anne C. Richard
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, and former Director, Secretary of State’s Office of Resources, Plans, and Policy
Robert P. Jackson
Former United States Ambassador
Maria Otero
Former U.S. Undersecretary of State
Jess Baily
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Kathleen Doherty
Former U.S. Ambassador
Larry Garber
Former USAID Mission Director, West Bank-Gaza
Alexander F. Watson
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Anthony W. Gambino
Former USAID Mission Director, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ambassador (Ret.) Janet A. Sanderson
Former U.S Ambassador to Haiti and Algeria
John B. Oliver
State Department Foreign Service Officer (Ret.)
Harold Hongju Koh
Former Legal Adviser and Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Eric J. Boswell
Ambassador (Ret.) and Former Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security
Susan Kosinski Fritz
Career Minister, USAID
J. Stephen Morrison
Former staff member, State Department Office of Policy Planning, former Staff Consultant,
House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee
Pamela E. Bridgewater
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Paul Simons
U.S. Ambassador to Chile (Ret.)
Jock Conly
Former USAID Mission Director
Bennett Lowenthal
Foreign Service Officer (Ret.)
US Department of State
Jessica John
Former Intelligence Officer, CIA
James Keith
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Arturo Valenzuela
Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Inter-American Affairs,
National Security Council, and Former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
William Patterson
Former Deputy Mission Director for USAID/Iraq
Kevin J. McGuire Ambassador (Ret.)
Beth Jones
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.), former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia
Deborah R. Malac
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Sarah Suzanne Olds
Former USAID Caucasus Mission Director
Mark Fitzpatrick
Former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation
Rosa Brooks
Former Counselor to the Undersecretary of Defense
Gary Usrey
Former Senior Advisor
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
Andrew L. Lluberes
Former Director of Communications, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, DHS.
Beth Paige
Career Minister (Ret.), USAID
Robert Blake U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Sarah Yager
Former Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Nicole Widdersheim
Former National Security Council Director for Africa
Chris Hoh
Former Senior Adviser, Department of State
Jennifer Klein
Former Assistant to the President
Mark Bocchetti
U.S. Foreign Service Officer (Ret.)
Donald Steinberg
Former NSC Senior Director, former Deputy Administrator, USAID, former U.S. Ambassador to Angola
Paul Hughes
COL, U.S. Army (Ret.), and former Deputy Director, Office for Humanitarian Assistance and Anti-Personnel Landmine Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Robert O. Boorstin
Former NSC Senior Director
Ted Osius
Former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam
Gregory W. Engle
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Joy Riggs-Perla
Senior Foreign Service Officer (Ret.), USAID
Michael Myers
Former Director, Humanitarian and Refugee Affairs, Department of Defense
Lynn Northcutt Vega
USAID Career Foreign Service Officer (Ret.)
Thomas M. Young
Senior Foreign Service Officer (Ret.)
Diane Orentlicher
Former Deputy for War Crimes Issues, U.S. Department of State
Patricia M Haslach
US Ambassador (Ret.)
Scott Busby
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Barbara K. Bodine
Former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen
Mark L. Schneider
Former Assistant Administrator Latin America and Caribbean, USAID, and former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Rights, Department of State
Makila James, Ambassador (Ret.) and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Africa and the Sudans
Rachel Vogelstein
Former Special Assistant to the President
Dawn M. Liberi
Former United States Ambassador and former USAID Mission Director
Avis Bohlen
Former United States Ambassador
William Douglass
Former Coordinator of the Development Leadership Initiative, USAID
David Shinn
Former United States Ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia
D. Holly Hammonds
Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director, National Economic Council and National Security Council
Thomas H. Staal
Former USAID Counselor
Jonathan S, Gration
Former U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan
Pamela L. Spratlen
Former U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan
Robert Hutchings
Former Coordinator of the U.S. Support for East European Democracy (SEED) program
Emmy Simmons
Former Assistant Administrator, USAID
Jake Walles
Former United States Ambassador to Tunisia and Former U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem
Hattie Babbitt
Former Deputy Administrator of USAID.
Michael Pelletier
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Janice Jacobs
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
John D. Feeley
Former Ambassador to Panama and former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs
Jonathan Addleton
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
David Kaye
Former Attorney-Adviser, State Department
Khadijat Mojidi
Former Health Foreign Service Officer, USAID
Adrian A Basora
United States Ambassador (Ret.)
Diana Swain
Former USAID Mission Director to Namibia and Angola
Todd Stern
Former U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change
Daniel Serwer
Former U.S. Special Envoy for the Bosnian Federation
Monica Stein-Olson
Former Senior Foreign Service Officer, USAID
Rachel Peniston, Former Senior Policy Advisor, Bureau of Planning, Learning, and Resource
Management, USAID
Robert Herman
Former staff member, State Department Office of Policy Planning
Corbin B. Lyday, PhD
Former Senior Policy Analyst, USAID
Leslie Rowe
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Greg Delawie U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Ann Tutwiler
Former Global Food Security Adviser, Office of the Secretary, USDA
Lissa Muscatine
Former Director of Speechwriting and Senior Adviser to the Secretary of State
Wanda L. Nesbitt
U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)
Larry Cathy Crandall
Former USAID Mission Director
Stephen K. Craven
Former Counselor, Foreign Commercial Service
Barry B. White
Former U. S. Ambassador to Norway
David Thomas Wolfson
Former Minister Counselor for Political Affairs, U.S. State Department
Gordon Gray
Former U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia
So important to have officials - current and former - speak out against these actions. Thank you.
Thank you Barney.