SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A month after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced plans to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a San Diego-based former employee is speaking out about the potential global repercussions of losing the agency's humanitarian work worldwide.
USAID began experiencing dramatic cuts in late February, when approximately 90 percent of USAID's workforce and 83 percent of its programs dealing either with health, food, or disaster relief, were effectively gutted.
Rob Friedman, a 13-year veteran of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, was among an estimated 1,600 employees who received abrupt termination notices.
"It was incredibly impersonal," Friedman told ABC10 News. "My name wasn't mentioned, and it essentially [said], 'We've done a review and we've found that we don't need your services anymore.'"
According to ABC News, around 4,000 additional USAID employees were placed on leave during the cuts.
Federal judges are now attempting to halt the dismantling process, challenging the administration's authority to dissolve the agency, arguing that only Congress has the constitutional power to eliminate a federal agency.
Meanwhile, administration officials have appeared on television to defend the decision, claiming that the cuts eliminated "fraud and waste."
"How we were being labeled was quite disconcerting," Friedman said.
Friedman went on to open up about how the labels couldn't be further from the truth.
Friedman, who documented his humanitarian work through his passion for photography, showed ABC10 News images from his deployments around the world.
In Nepal, Friedman said he and his colleagues assisted with earthquake management in 2015, helping the local masons with structures, including school buildings.
"We went back to check and see which schools stood after the earthquake, and primarily the ones that were constructed with the education and training provided by USAID, these schools stood," Friedman said.
Friedman also worked in Honduras at one point, after devastating hurricanes destroyed crops.
"We were making sure that the latest technologies are being used to make sure that they're they're producing a lot and we're finding incredible results from this," Friedman said.
USAID's impact extended to public health emergencies as well. During the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa in 2014 and 2018, the agency played a crucial role in containing the spread of the disease.
"The fact that Ebola didn't make it to the United States in numbers shows what USAID did," Friedman said. "Sometimes it's easy to overlook an achievement like that because it didn't hurt anybody."
Friedman emphasized that all USAID missions he participated in came directly from the presidential administration at that time, and the programs they were deployed on were chosen by the administration because they felt it was in the best interest of America at that time.
One month after the administration announced plans to dismantle USAID by September, Friedman expressed grave concerns about the potential global repercussions.
"I think that the biggest loss is going to be from health programs, so tuberculosis, malaria, these are diseases that are there, and the only reason that you can beat them back is when you're focusing on them," Friedman said. "I'm sorry to say the result is going to be more death."
Friedman added that he's worried about the lack of food distribution is also going to cause suffering in countries USAID used to help. Friedman said that 'Food for Peace' through the Food for Peace Act, brought surplus vital food aid from American farmers to countries experiencing food insecurity or drought.
"This is also gone," Friedman said.
When asked what message he would send to policymakers, Friedman referenced what foreign policy experts call the "3Ds" of American international engagement.
"That's defense, development, and diplomacy," Friedman explained. "USAID, they're the ones who are carrying out development. That impacts your ability to carry out diplomacy. Are we just going to rely on defense? Are you cutting off your nose to spite your face here? I think that's what you're doing with USAID."
To see Friedman's photography from his work with USAID around world, click here:
https://www.robfriedmanphotography.com/bio
