Foreign aid workers called on the Durham City Council this week to pass a resolution opposing Trump’s foreign aid cuts—cuts that have already drained hundreds of jobs from the Triangle.
The proposed resolution, introduced by Mayor Leonardo Williams during a Thursday work session, condemns the Trump administration’s freeze on United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding and calls for its immediate reversal.
“There are folks that were middle class families or just hard working families that are doing just imperative work, that are now applying for unemployment or selling jewelry to just get to the next month,” Williams said.
The agenda item brought emotional testimony from residents who’ve lost their livelihoods in recent weeks.
Durham resident Rachel Cooper previously worked strengthening healthcare systems in East and Southern Africa, helping governments build capacity to distribute life-saving medicines for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. In January, she lost her job due to the administration’s stop work order on foreign aid programs.
“I’m in front of you today because I’m deeply concerned about the impacts of dismantling USAID on our community here,” she told the council. She’s concerned, she said, “for the hundreds in our community who now find themselves with no paycheck—people who one month ago, like myself, were gainfully employed with good American jobs.”
Durham’s council will vote on the resolution at their March 17 meeting. Chapel Hill passed a similar resolution in mid-February and Carrboro approved one earlier this week.
North Carolina ranks as the fourth-highest state recipient of USAID funding. The state’s fourth district—which comprises Durham, Orange, Granville, and parts of Wake counties—is the fourth-highest receiving congressional district of all 435 in the nation. Foreign aid infuses North Carolina’s economy with more than $1 billion annually, with Durham housing major USAID fund recipients like RTI International and FHI 360.
Brianna Clarke-Schwelm, the executive director of the North Carolina Global Health Alliance, reported a sharp increase in local job losses over just the past few days.
“When I spoke at the Carrboro meeting on Tuesday, I said about 300 people had already lost their jobs,” Clarke-Schwelm told the council. “Since Tuesday, I now have to say about 500 people here in the Triangle have already lost their jobs.”
Clarke-Schwelm asked those in the audience employed by international aid organizations to stand and seven people rose from their seats, representing many others from organizations including Duke Global Health Institute, RTI, and FHI360.
As the city council considered the resolution Thursday, RTI International saw another 150 layoffs, including 80 in North Carolina. This follows more than 200 RTI layoffs last month, with 61 in North Carolina.
Beyond addressing the immediate employment crisis, the draft resolution urges the U.S. Treasury to immediately pay outstanding invoices to North Carolina organizations, calls on the state Attorney General to amend pending litigation, and stands in solidarity with affected workers. It also calls for congressional review of foreign assistance’s local economic benefits and protection for more than 1,750 Triangle-area jobs tied to global development contracts.
Council members debated several linguistic nuances. Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton pushed to remove the word “illegal” from the description of the administration’s actions.
“This statement should be so powerful and so unimpeachable—I don’t want to give any opportunity for quibbling,” Middleton said. “Slavery was legal for a long time. So I don’t want to even give an on-ramp to any type of sniping to lessen the impact of the statement.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in rejecting the Trump administration’s attempt to keep foreign aid funds frozen, called the funding stoppage illegal. Affected organizations still don’t know when they might receive owed funds and what that might mean for jobs already cut.
Council member Chelsea Cook works as an attorney in Legal Aid of North Carolina’s eviction diversion program. Cook said victims of sudden job losses like these often end up in eviction proceedings within weeks.
“Any sort of change, and those folks show up the following month,” Cook said. “We have young people who are impacted by this, too, who maybe don’t have savings or don’t have a spouse that’s able to float them.”
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