The Trump administration’s abrupt suspension of USAID funding has triggered a life-threatening crisis for agency workers abroad, according to court documents filed this week. A foreign service officer, identified as Terry Doe, revealed how the USAID funding freeze endangered his wife’s high-risk pregnancy after years of costly fertility treatments. “The stress and strain of the constant onslaught by my employer... left us in a life-threatening emergency,” Doe stated in an affidavit.
Doe’s wife, 31 weeks pregnant, was repeatedly hospitalized due to stress-related complications linked to USAID’s abrupt policy shifts. Embassy medical teams advised urgent medical evacuation, but the State Department denied requests twice, citing funding shortages.
“There is no USAID funding for medivacs,”officials reportedly told Doe. Only after a U.S. senator intervened was evacuation approved—but delays caused severe hemorrhaging, leaving his wife hospitalized overseas.
“This didn’t have to happen,” Doe asserted, blaming the administration’s “rushed, haphazard” efforts to dismantle aid programs. Meanwhile, USAID Vice President Randall Chester contradicted agency claims of successful evacuations in Congo, calling efforts a systemic failure. Union affidavits highlighted:
- Unpaid evacuation debts exceeding $10,000 per officer
- Inoperable payment systems delaying critical reimbursements
- Inadequate support for displaced families
The Phoenix payment platform remains dysfunctional, exacerbating financial strain on staff. Critics warn these disruptions could cripple U.S. humanitarian efforts globally. As Doe’s family fights for stability, the case underscores the human cost of bureaucratic instability in foreign aid.