Sen. Joni Ernst is accusing USAID of intimidating and threatening her team in a brazen effort to obstruct congressional oversight.
Speaking with DailyMail.com, the Iowa Republican tore into the agency, which has been effectively shuttered by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk.
Originally, USAID was established in 1961 to award U.S. taxpayer cash to countries for important education, infrastructure, health and other projects. It has been credited for helping developing countries get vital resources like medicine and food.
But as Musk’s DOGE team began investigating the department’s expenditures, they were aghast with what they found and decided to ‘shut it down.’
Spending included millions of taxpayer dollars to expand LBGT employment initiatives in Serbia and fund transgender health clinics in India and Vietnam.
As of Tuesday USAID’s fate hangs in limbo and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has taken over control after finding extraordinary ‘insubordination’ among the agency’s top ranks.
‘Defiant’ workers are a hallmark of USAID, Ernst shared with DailyMail.com.
The senator from Iowa said that the agency stonewalled her last year when she tried to investigate the agency’s money flow.
‘They said, ‘No, you can’t look at it. You’re not going to look at these contracts. You don’t need access to it, so we’re not going to let you see it,” Ernst recounted.
The USAID staff even made a bold-faced threat to bring legal action against the senator she accused. ‘I mean, it is crazy,’ Ernst said of USAID.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) revealed to DailyMail.com exactly how USAID threatened her team as she tried to investigate the agency
DOGE leader Elon Musk said Monday that USAID has to go and that the agency is rotten to the core
‘They even responded back with a letter that was basically threatening us by saying, ‘Well, if we allow you access to this information, it gets into the wrong hands, we can sue you,” the Republican said.
‘They were trying to scare us away from continuing to dig into this,’ she added.
Ernst and her team were trying to determine what the cost of USAID recipients’ negotiated indirect cost rate agreements (NICRA).
NICRA costs include employees’ salaries, facility repairs, rent, lobbying and administrative costs.
After six months of negotiating with USAID over getting access to their data, Ernst’s team was finally allowed to review a limited number of files while being surveilled the entire time.
‘And then my staff was allowed to go into a room where he could not take notes, he could not remove any information, and he was under a camera the entire time so that the [USAID] staff could watch him read the data,’ Ernst shared.
She was dismayed at the treatment of her staff after the protracted negotiation to even lay eyes on the data they sought for months.
‘What we found out was that the NICRA rates were upwards of 50 to 60 percent and that doesn’t include the cost that the subcontractors were adding on, which means, if you look at it from that perspective, maybe only 40 percent of the dollars that we’re sending in humanitarian aid actually result in humanitarian aid,’ Ernst shared of her findings.
USAID staff received an email Monday morning instructing them to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters. There were reportedly 600 employees who were locked out of USAID’s computer systems overnight. Pictured: The USAID building in D.C. on February 1, 2025
A pro-LGBTQ group in Serbia called ‘Grupa Izadji,’ which in English translates to ‘Group Come Out,’ was receiving $1.5 million a year from USAID to advance employment opportunities for the gay community in Serbia
‘All these big fat cat contractors are sucking up all those extra dollars, and we were only able to get that information after they USAID obstructed us.’
NICRA funds were being used to pay for fancy meals with lobbyists and expensive headquarters for USAID recipients worldwide her team found.
USAID money was also sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, where COVID-19 is believed to have originated, and to fund tourism in Lebanon and pottery classes in Morocco, Ernst said.
Other interesting projects funded by USAID include a $2.5 million electric vehicle project in Vietnam, over $35 million for research into HIV among South African sex workers, their clients and the transgender community and more.
‘Let’s reorganize, let’s trim back, and let’s make sure that if there are good programs, they get funded, if there is waste and abuse, that it gets done away with,’ she said.
Just after taking office, Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio implemented a 90-day freeze on most foreign aid to give the new administration time to review what USAID’s $30 billion budget for 2025 is being used on.
During this process DOGE workers have locked USAID workers out of the office to determine exactly what is afoot at the department.
USAID, an independent agency established by an act of Congress, manages a budget of $42.8 billion meant for humanitarian relief and development assistance around the world
USAID funding supports HIV clinics in Africa – like the one pictured above in South Africa
CNN reported that two senior security officials at USAID were put on forced leave after they barred staff from Musk’s DOGE from accessing classified documents as part of their sprawling effort to inspect the government’s books.
The two DOGE representatives also wanted to access staff files and security systems at USAID’s headquarters, the broadcaster reported, citing multiple sources.
Nearly 30 career staff in the agency’s Legislative and Public Affairs bureau lost access to their emails overnight on Monday, at least five sources said, bringing the total number of senior USAID career staff who have been put on leave over the past week close to 100.
