Durham council hears pleas from global health workers, moves to revise USAID stop‑work resolution

Dozens of Durham residents who work on international development told the City Council on March 13 that recent federal moves halting some USAID foreign‑assistance work have already cost local jobs and threatened university and nonprofit contracts tied to the Triangle economy.

Brianna Clark Schwalm, executive director of the North Carolina Global Health Alliance, told the council the state receives some $1 billion per year in USAID‑related funding and said she had monitored hundreds of local job losses. “We estimate about 2,000 people might possibly lose their jobs from this one decision,” she said; Rachel Cooper, a local global‑health professional who said she lost her job after the stop‑work order, described immediate household and community effects.

Mayor Williams introduced a draft joint resolution “calling for the immediate lifting of the stop work order on foreign assistance programs and the reopening of the United States Agency for International Development.” The draft cites concerns about the economic and public‑health impacts on North Carolina institutions and Triangle‑area organizations and asks that copies be sent to the state attorney general and the federal congressional delegation.

Council discussion focused on two types of edits: factual corrections and how broadly the resolution should identify other local governments as co‑sponsors. The mayor and multiple council members discussed a transcript error the attorney’s office caught and agreed to correct the executive‑order citation used in the draft. Council members also debated whether to describe the administration’s action as “illegal” or to use a narrower phrase; several councillors urged caution about legal characterizations because the Supreme Court’s handling of an injunction had not settled the constitutional question.

Council members discussed whether to present the measure as a joint resolution with Chapel Hill and Carrboro or as a Durham resolution that notes companion actions nearby. Mayor Williams said the optics of multiple municipalities taking similar actions were useful but asked staff to prepare a version that reflects consistent language across allies. Councilmember Cook and others urged adding congressional recipients and the state attorney general to the list of addressees.

Brianna Clark Schwalm, Rachel Cooper and other local practitioners urged the council to act. “This is a North Carolina issue. This is a Durham issue,” Schwalm said. She told the council she had tracked layoffs: “About 500 people in the Triangle have already lost their jobs,” she said during testimony.

Council members made several drafting decisions during the meeting: they directed staff to correct the executive‑order citation in the draft, to add language acknowledging companion resolutions in other municipalities, and to route the finalized Durham version to the city’s congressional delegation and the state attorney general. Council did not take a final vote on the substantive resolution at the March 13 meeting; the mayor said staff would circulate edits and that the item would reappear on a forthcoming agenda for final action.

Ending

City staff will revise the draft to address wording and addressees, and the mayor said the council will return to the matter. Testimony from local global‑health workers framed the resolution as affecting both local jobs and international programs that, they said, protect public health.