Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated authority over the United States Agency for International Development to a Department of Government Efficiency senior official, according to an email obtained by the Associated Press.
The Tuesday email from USAID Deputy Director Pete Marocco to State Department staff revealed that he would be replaced by Jeremy Lewin of the DOGE and Kenneth Jackson, a State Department official tapped as the acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the New York Times reported.
‘USAID is under control, accountable and stable.’
Marocco noted that the new appointment would be “effective immediately.”
“It’s been my honor to assist Secretary Rubio in his leadership of USAID through some difficult stages to pivot this enterprise away from its abuses of the past,” Marocco wrote. “Now that USAID is under control, accountable and stable, I am going to return to my post as the Director of Foreign Assistance to bring value back to the American people.”
Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson, confirmed on Wednesday that Marocco would serve as the agency’s director of foreign assistance. She called it “an indispensable role in aligning all U.S. government foreign assistance with the president’s priorities.”
The AP reported that Lewin’s appointment marked “at least the second DOGE lieutenant” to move to the USAID.
While with the DOGE, Lewin played a key role in dismantling the USAID’s waste, which included terminating 83% of its contracts and placing the remainder under the State Department.
A memo obtained by the Times reportedly revealed that the State Department plans to redesignate the USAID as the U.S. Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance and terminate its current independent status.
Also earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland, in response to a lawsuit filed by USAID staffers, blocked the DOGE from making additional cuts. The complaint claimed that the DOGE and Elon Musk lacked the authority to dismantle the agency.
After ruling that the cuts were most likely unconstitutional, the judge ordered that the DOGE restore staffers’ email and computer access.
“To deny plaintiffs’ Appointments Clause claim solely on the basis that, on paper, Musk has no formal legal authority relating to the decisions at issue, even if he is actually exercising significant authority on governmental matters, would open the door to an end-run around the Appointments Clause,” Chuang wrote in his decision.
Several Republican lawmakers are seeking to codify the DOGE, a move that would help shield it from the left’s relentless lawfare.
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