The United States African Development Foundation, a small agency with a budget of about $45 million, is pushing back against the Department of Government Efficiency’s moves to effectively shutter its doors.
DOGE notified the foundation that a staffer with the Elon Musk-inspired department and State Department official Peter Marocco, who’s tasked with dismantling the United States Agency for International Development, would be visiting the foundation.
The foundation’s CEO and president, Ward Brehm, responded that he is out of office and would not allow his staff to meet with DOGE without him, effectively shutting it out, according to an undated letter obtained by POLITICO on Wednesday.
Despite the letter, Marocco and other officials went to the USADF building on Thursday, attempting to gain access to the building for a second time, according to the foundation.
The move comes as DOGE looks to dismantle the agency by installing Marocco as chair of the foundation’s board of directors, canceling the foundation’s grants and contracts and cutting their staff, the foundation said.
The USADF is one of the smallest agencies in the federal government, with a relatively low appropriation of $45 million for assisting economic development in Africa. But one of President Donald Trump’s latest executive orders calls for the USADF to be eliminated and to reduce its performance and personnel to the absolute minimum required by law.
The USADF is using their jurisdiction through Congress to try and prevent DOGE from installing Marocco to control their Board of Directors.
For Marocco to lead the board, he would have to first be appointed to the board and confirmed by the Senate, Brehm said in his letter.
“I will look forward to working with Mr. Marocco after such time that he is nominated for a seat on the Board and his nomination is confirmed by the Senate,” Brehm wrote.
USADF’s pushback is part of a larger conflict with U.S. foreign assistance agencies that were created by Congress, but that have become swept up in Trump’s effort to cut U.S. foreign aid and reduce the size of the government. The Trump administration cut 90 percent of its foreign aid contracts last week, and thousands of USAID staff have been placed on administrative leave since Trump took office.
A representative of DOGE did not immediately respond to request for comment. The State Department also did not respond to request for comment about Marocco.
Brehm signaled in his letter that Marocco would not be let into USADF unless Congress moves to install him in an official position.
“Until these legal requirements are met, Mr. Marocco does not hold any position or office with USADF, and he may not speak or act on the Foundation's behalf,” Brehm wrote.
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