FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 1, 2025

MEDIA CONTACT

Alexis Posel, [email protected]

USAID Whistleblower Raises the Alarm in the Senate on the Trump Admin’s Reckless Termination of Life-Saving Global Health Programs

Washington, D.C., April 1, 2025 – The continued efforts of the Trump Administration and of DOGE to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recklessly disregards human life both here in the United States and abroad.

Today at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee roundtable, USAID Acting Assistant Administrator of Global Health, Nicholas Enrich, warned that the Trump Administration’s shutdown of life-saving humanitarian assistance cripples U.S. leadership in preventing the next deadly pandemic.

The loss of basic airport screening in Uganda exposes the rest of the world to the spread of Ebola which has already claimed lives where thousands of Americans live. The ranks of doctors, epidemiologists, and public health specialists who have stopped the uncontrolled spread of infectious diseases such as Ebola, Malaria, and Tuberculosis have been decimated.

“Those of us who have dedicated our careers to helping the most vulnerable around the world are all too aware of the damage that recent events at USAID have caused,” Nicholas Enrich said. “The impact of this damage will not only affect people in need around the world, but also the health, well-being, and national security of us here at home.”

For his lawful whistleblowing, Enrich was placed on administrative leave less than thirty minutes after the release of the memo he sent to Trump leadership detailing the grim repercussions.

“The Trump Administration’s claim that USAID is wasteful is wholly unsubstantiated by the evidence,” Andrew Bakaj, Whistleblower Aid Chief Legal Counsel said. “If this Administration had any integrity at all, it would not lie to the American people about the crises they’ve created.”

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Whistleblower Aid provides pro bono legal, advocacy, and communications support to government and private sector whistleblowers acting in the public interest. The organization’s lawyers have represented some of the most consequential national security and Big Tech whistleblowers in history, including the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, the anonymous intelligence community whistleblower whose disclosures led to the first impeachment of President Trump, and others.

Whistleblower Aid is a 501(c)(3) organization