1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to launch a comprehensive investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency's destruction of the U.S. Agency for International Development and to enact safeguards preventing similar unaccountable government overhauls in the future. In February, Elon Musk was appointed as a special government employee to run DOGE, a temporary organization with no oversight. Within days, he dismantled USAID, a 64-year-old humanitarian agency responsible for 40% of total foreign aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024. Musk abruptly halted deliveries of lifesaving medicine and emergency food aid to the world's poorest people. According to epidemiologist Brooke Nichols from Boston University, hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of eliminated and disrupted aid. The human consequences are staggering. A South Sudanese child with HIV died from pneumonia due to lack of immune system medication. People were abandoned in medical studies with experimental drugs in their systems and medical devices in their bodies. Acute malnutrition cases surged at refugee camps. Early warning systems for starvation and infectious diseases were shut down. The destruction was carried out with extreme carelessness. When Acting USAID Director Jason Gray refused to immediately cut off communications with personnel in conflict zones, citing risk to lives, he was fired. Young, inexperienced DOGE members including 23-year-old Luke Farritor and 19-year-old Edward Coristine investigated staff for insubordination, which was used to justify destroying the entire agency. Musk initially claimed DOGE would slash spending by at least $2 trillion. After DOGE was disbanded, he admitted he was only a little bit successful and wouldn't do it again. The actual savings were microscopic while the global calamity was immense. I urge you to investigate how this catastrophe was allowed to happen and to establish legislative guardrails requiring congressional oversight for any future government reorganization efforts. No unelected individual should wield such unchecked power over agencies serving vulnerable populations worldwide.