LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A new study estimates that the U.S. Agency for International Development has helped save more than 90 million lives in the past two decades. This on the agency's last official day.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Yes, when the Trump administration took office in January, one of its first major moves was dismantling USAID. Today - nearly six months later - the agency officially shuts down. A few hundred remaining employees will merge their operations under the State Department.
FADEL: NPR's Fatma Tanis has been covering this and joins us now. Good morning, Fatma.
FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so tell us what the last days at USAID have been like.
TANIS: It's been very difficult for agency staff who've been saying goodbye to their colleagues last week. There have been lots of tears. People told me it's hitting them that this is the end. They said they were drawn to the agency's mission, to the idea of helping people in countries all over the world. You know, they brought up the USAID logo, which was on everything from clinics to food and medical packages, the words, from the American people, and that was something staff said they really believed in.
FADEL: So, Fatma, without USAID, is U.S. foreign assistance just something of the past now?
TANIS: You know, a quick reminder, the U.S. was the largest donor of global health and development funding. Much of that was done through USAID, which managed thousands of programs. More than 80% of them are now terminated. The administration has decided some will continue, and the State Department will take on managing those, starting today. The administration has made it clear it believes most of U.S. foreign aid has not been aligned with President Trump's "America First" policy, but it has not outlined a vision for the future.
FADEL: And what's the impact been of shutting down USAID?
TANIS: It's hard to overstate. You know, we're talking about cuts to thousands of programs in low-income countries that addressed health issues, like malaria and HIV/AIDS. Also humanitarian efforts, such as feeding malnourished children. We also know that the shutting down of programs has caused deaths. For example, we reported on one child in Nigeria who died because the USAID-funded clinic he went to for urgent medical treatment was shut down. It was the only clinic nearby. And you mentioned earlier that study published in The Lancet. It projects that the cuts to USAID could result in 14 million preventable deaths by 2030. And while much of the impact has been felt globally, there's concern in academic circles and in Congress that there will be consequences felt here at home.
FADEL: And what are those consequences?
TANIS: So this actually came up at a hearing last week. Senators questioned Russell Vought about the cuts to foreign assistance. He's the director of the Office of Management and Budget for the White House. Several Republicans brought up that foreign assistance served two purposes. It helped prevent diseases from reaching the United States, and also something called soft power, where you spend money to build positive relationships and create stability in the world. Here's Republican Senator Mitch McConnell talking about it.
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MITCH MCCONNELL: Over my years in the Senate, the biggest supporters of soft power I've run into have been the military, generals who are fully aware of how much more costly it is to have a war than to prevent one.
TANIS: McConnell went on to say that he also didn't like all of USAID's programs, but that the way the administration had gone after them had been, quote, "unnecessarily chaotic" and created opportunities for China to fill the gap the U.S. has left.
FADEL: That's NPR's Fatma Tanis. Thank you, Fatma.
TANIS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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