Dozens of demonstrators lie down in government office building to warn against dismantling foreign aid agency<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fired USAid<\/a> employees and advocates for people with HIV staged a protest in a Capitol office building on Wednesday, warning that Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s drive to dismantle the agency tasked with implementing Washington\u2019s foreign aid agenda imperils the fight against the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wearing white T-shirts that read \u201cAids funding cuts kill\u201d and chanting \u201cCongress has blood on its hands, unfreeze aid now\u201d, around three dozen protesters lay down in the rotunda of the Cannon House office building, home to the offices of representatives from both parties. Capitol police said about 20 arrests were made of demonstrators who defied their orders to disperse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat we are demanding of Congress is that they stop behaving like doormats in the face of this attack on humanitarian assistance that truly is highly effective and life-saving,\u201d Asia Russell, executive director of Health Gap, a global advocacy group fighting against HIV, said prior to the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to overstate what\u2019s at stake regarding humanitarian assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The protest came as USAid remained frozen by the Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s rapid moves to close the agency. Over the weekend, the agency announced that it was placing all but a small number of its employees worldwide, as well as nearly 2,000 staffers based in the United States, on paid leave<\/a>. Those working in Washington DC have been invited to retrieve<\/a> their belongings from its headquarters, which is set to be turned into office space<\/a> for US Customs and Border Protection, one of the agencies implementing Trump\u2019s hardline immigration policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, a federal judge reportedly gave<\/a> the government a two-day deadline to release billions of dollars in foreign aid funds that had been held back after Trump ordered USAid to stop work. If those funds are not restored, former USAid employees who attended the protest at the Capitol warned, the global fight against HIV will be set back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The United States has been a leader in the campaign against the virus that causes Aids through Pepfar, a program that provides medication to 20 million people worldwide and was established during Republican George W Bush\u2019s presidency. But USAid\u2019s abrupt closure has stopped payments to providers<\/a> working with the program worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is not controversial, and what is happening is not government efficiency, it\u2019s government fraud, waste and abuse when it comes to what Doge is doing,\u201d said the fired USAid contractor Van Credle, referring to Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s so-called \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d, which spearheaded the dismantling of her agency as well as other deep cuts to federal services<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Republican majorities elected to both the Senate and House last November have thus far shown little interest in saving USAid<\/a> and even supported its closure, despite the fact that foreign assistance has in the past enjoyed support on both sides of the aisle. Kelsey Crow, a contractor at the agency\u2019s bureau of global health who lost her job, said the protest was meant to encourage lawmakers who previously supported USAid to step up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo much of our work at USAid is mandated by Congress, and so for Congress to not be taking action, for Congress to be holding hearings that are pushing out lies and falsehoods about USAid to say that the waivers are back when we know that they\u2019re actually not turned on and the money\u2019s not actually flowing, it\u2019s incredibly disappointing,\u201d Crow said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Kerndt, a physician who spent five years with USAid coordinating the fight against tuberculosis in African and Asian countries, said it will be \u201cimpossible\u201d to achieve a global goal of eliminating the virus by 2030 if the agency goes away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n