Former USAID employee tells Oversight Committee Democrats his evacuation left staff unpaid and without due process
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Summary
Marcus Do, a former USAID employee, told committee members he and colleagues were evacuated from Kinshasa, DRC, and that waiver funding and evacuee expenses were delayed or unpaid; he also said he was investigated after an ABC News interview. No formal action is recorded in the transcript.
Marcus Do, a former USAID employee, told members of the committee that he and his family were evacuated from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, under violent conditions last year and that agency procedures left many federal employees without due process and with unpaid expenses.
Do described fleeing explosions and gunfire and traveling with only carry-on bags, saying evacuation funding required a waiver that "was not completed until we were already out of the country." He said months of expenses for evacuees went unpaid and that rapid employment terminations compounded harms to U.S. programs abroad.
Why it matters: Do argued the personnel disruptions impair U.S. foreign-assistance work, citing collaborations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on disease surveillance, anti-poaching and water systems work, and educational programs in the DRC. "We tried to prevent starvation, stop domestic abuse, [and] help build safe reliable water systems," he said, adding that those programs also protect U.S. interests such as trade partnerships.
Do said he had previously submitted testimony in litigation related to the administration's workforce actions and gave an interview to ABC News in March; he told committee members the administration subsequently investigated him, and he characterized that investigation as not clearly aimed at gathering new information. The transcript records the allegation but does not include any response from administration officials.
Throughout his remarks Do emphasized the human costs to U.S. civil servants and the people they served abroad. He described the personal toll of disrupted retirement plans and the emotional strain of rebuilding a career and family life in the United States after evacuation.
Do closed by offering to provide more details to committee members at a later time. The transcript contains no record of votes or formal committee actions related to his testimony.
"We are all human beings, and we all deserve the dignity of being treated that way," Do said in closing.