According to interviews with more than half a dozen current and former USAID officials as well as other people familiar with the agency, the baffling exchange is indicative of how many USAID staffers say they feel frozen as the virus rips through poor countries such as Pakistan and Ecuador. Instead of clear guidance from the Trump administration’s upper echelons, they are getting mixed signals on whether to push or hold back, wasting critical time that could be used to fight the outbreak.

“By the time we get money at the door, we may not able to do anything effective for the coronavirus,” one USAID official said. “This is the dumbest way to try and beat a pandemic.”

The confusion could hardly come at a worse time for USAID. The aid agency, which manages about $20 billion in foreign aid each year, has just begun a leadership transition, with the recent departure of its well-regarded administrator Mark Green and his replacement by an acting chief. USAID also has fended off attempts to slash its budget by a president deeply skeptical of the value of foreign aid. And a White House review of what material USAID gives other countries has compounded the overall uncertainty at the agency.

The tumult comes as the agency gears up to play a critical role in the global fight against Covid-19. The virus is now spreading in developing countries ill-equipped to combat the outbreak on their own but where USAID officials have deep relationships and technical expertise. Agency officials say their effort to stop the virus in those countries is not simply about altruism: Eradicating Covid-19 in places like Africa and Latin America could help prevent the virus from reemerging in the United States and setting off a second wave of deaths and economic collapse.

"USAID has got a presence in scores of countries likely to be hardest hit because their own capabilities are modest,” said Lester Munson, co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and a former USAID official. “It’s going to need resources, some judgment, top cover from the State Department and the White House to do the things it needs to do.”

President Donald Trump’s decision this week to halt funding to the World Health Organization has only exacerbated the frustration and confusion. USAID officials around the world are now scrambling to get details about the halt and find “alternative” partners running health programs for causes like eradicating polio; in many cases alternatives don’t exist.

James L. Richardson, the State Department’s director of U.S. foreign assistance resources, informed USAID officials and other staffers in a brief email after Trump’s announcement that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had instructed diplomats and aid officials “to identify and utilize alternative implementers for foreign assistance beyond the WHO.”

“By taking this approach,” Richardson said, “we can continue our good work on behalf of the American people, while ensuring that U.S. foreign assistance is best positioned to improve the lives of vulnerable people around the world, as Americans have always done.”

USAID is technically an independent agency, but it takes policy direction from the State Department. Richardson’s note, however, didn’t quell the questions among USAID staffers about the suspension of funds to WHO. Many on Wednesday were still trying to figure out whether exceptions could be made to the funding pause.

“The biggest issue at the agency right now is lack of clarity,” said one USAID official, who, like most of the people interviewed requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to a reporter. “Every day you hear something new, something different. You don’t know who the decider is.”

A leadership shake-up at a crucial time

The apprehensions have deepened as USAID has acquired a new leader.

John Barsa, who took over Saturday as USAID’s acting administrator, served on Trump’s transition team after the 2016 election and is a former Homeland Security official. He spent much of the past year at USAID as assistant administrator for the Latin America and Caribbean bureau, but, overall, he has limited development experience.

Green, the previous USAID administrator, was respected by Republicans and Democrats alike. A former ambassador and GOP lawmaker, Green managed to quietly steer the aid agency and even reorganize it without attracting much notice from Trump.

Barsa’s rise surprised many at the agency who thought the acting role would go to Bonnie Glick, USAID’s deputy administrator. Like Barsa, Glick is a Trump political appointee, but she also is a former Foreign Service officer with significant overseas experience.

Some at USAID view Barsa’s ascent as a White House effort to exert more control over USAID, an agency whose very mission of aiding other countries seems to collide with Trump’s America First views. And, in fact, Barsa’s appointment coincides with the arrival and elevation of other political appointees at the agency.

They include Jennifer Arangio, who recently joined USAID as a senior adviser. Arangio was previously pushed out of a different administration role, but she remains devoted to Trump and his ideals. William Maloney, previously a paralegal specialist at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has been named USAID’s White House liaison.

Barsa is officially in an “acting” role, and there are already names being floated for a permanent administrator. Still, given the pandemic’s curtailing of congressional activity, the upcoming presidential election and the usual slow Senate confirmation process, Barsa is sure to be at the helm for several months.

Some USAID officials are concerned that Barsa and other political appointees’ arrival means the agency will take a more Trump-like approach to the rest of world, one deeply disdainful of multilateral organizations and foreign aid.

Others argue that having more political appointees at the agency might give it more clout in the White House. Right now, USAID does not have its own member on the White House’s coronavirus task force, a sign of its limited influence.

A USAID spokesperson declined to answer questions for this story other than to confirm some of the personnel changes, and the agency did not make Barsa available for an interview. A White House spokesperson also would not offer comment.

Barsa has, however, released a video introducing himself to the agency’s employees. The video, set to music, is indicative of what people who know Barsa say is his political savvy; in it, he even admits that many at USAID might not recognize his face.

“My highest priority is the physical and emotional well-being of the entire USAID workforce,” a casually dressed Barsa says, posing in front of bookshelves. “The work you’ve been doing must not only continue, but has become even more important.”

“There’s nothing coming at us that we can’t handle,” he adds later. “We’ve got this.”

‘You can’t stop and start aid programs overnight’

Current and former USAID officials say the Trump administration's confused approach is undermining the aid agency in the field, and sending contradictory messages on what type of help the U.S. will or won’t offer overseas.

In announcing that the U.S. will devote at least $500 million to aid other countries struck by the virus, for example, Pompeo has said that won’t include gear known as personal protective equipment (PPE) because of shortages of such items in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the White House coronavirus task force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, is reviewing USAID’s deliveries overseas to see what can and cannot be provided. A draft memo that lays out the decisions prompted by the review is in circulation in the administration. (That could be the “list” mentioned in the USAID email exchanges described earlier.)

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But those announcements and actions have raised all sorts of questions, like what items count as PPE, what beyond PPE will be barred, and whether multilateral institutions and independent aid groups that get U.S. funding will be allowed to spend that money on PPE or other items.

The questions are coming fast and furious amid an international scramble for medical equipment that has affected even the richest countries.

Aid groups were shocked last month when a USAID official sent out an “urgent request,” asking them to tally up any PPE and other medical supplies that they could give to the United States. The items requested included endotracheal tubes and nasal cannula.

Current and former USAID officials say the delays in the decision-making are maddening in part because it takes time to program funding, put in rules and submit orders for materials needed in a disaster zone.

And that’s time that the virus is spreading.

“You can’t stop and start aid programs overnight,” one former USAID official said, adding that one good thing about the agency has always been that it “isn’t there just during a disaster but stays long term.”

Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.

