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heads to quote the wood chipper. the trump administration was swiftly monday to dismantle the u.s. aid putting hundreds of employees on leave and terminating contracts or after tech boehner elon musk said he was in the process of shutting down the agency that oversees foreign aid. he claimed on social media early monday morning that he ran the excellent remove by president trump and had his full backing. raised objections from democrats who argued trump likes the constitutional authority to eliminate usaid which was established by congress as an independent agency in 1998. and this come let's take a look at what secretary ofof state mao rubio said about closing usaid when he was asked by reporters redistrict in central america yesterday. >> might issue as iy said is there are things usaid that we

do that we should continue to do and we will continue to do. but everything they do has to be in alignment witho the national interest and foreign policy of the united states and attitude usaid has adopted over the years is no, we are independent of the national interest. we fund programs perspective whether it's aligned are not aligned with the foreign policy. that's ridiculous. these are taxpayer dollars. every penny we spent in for a needs to be in furtherance and the aligned with the national interest and national come foreign policy of the united states. this is not about ending the program of usaid prepare things it does that are good and things it does that we have questions about. it's about the way it operates. this post take directions of the state to from policy direction they did not. they're completely uncooperative when you ask questions and try to go into find out what does this program do? why was this funded? why we doing this? why aren't you coordinating with the state department?

that attitude is we don't have answer because were independent. we had to dode no one. that set her and that will no longer be the case. >> host: secretary of state is now acting head of usaid. marco rubio taking over as acting head of usaid amid agency trouble. we are going to hear quickly before we take your calls from senator andy kim, a democrat of new jersey. he onceje worked at usaid and to talk to reporters. kerry is. >> about 20 years ago when i first came to work for the federal government i walked through the doors right behind me. i i started my career in public service ater usaid. i have to say how proud i was to be able to serve the country, how proud i was to work for usaid, to be part of the foreign policy of this country. i have to tell you it was really tough today walking through these same doors 20 some years

later only to see it shut down to employees. all weekend long i was getting calls and phone calls from people that i work with that usaid, people who are there now, people have been disrespected by this administration that pushes into the side, basically calls them criminals and tells them not to show up to work. in fact, i went inside trying to speak i to the acting administrator greg. unfortunately was not ableit to meet with him and i will continue to try today to give to meet with the acting administrator because i want to hear straight fromwa him, isn't this the order he gave? to have mysterious people within this new administration sending out e-mails across the entirety of usaid telling them not to show up. i talked to the security guards. i talked to the security guard just in there. specifice's been given

orders to prevent employees of usaid from entering the building today and i just find that to be absolutely ridiculous. this is no way to govern. no way to treat public servants. this is no way for us to conduct our foreign policy as a country. i had to show up today to see with my own eyes, the chaos of this administration -- >> back to u.s. city where lawmakers may consider more president trump's cabinet nominees. live coverage here on c-span2. o senate will come to order. the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: madam president, i rise to talk a little bit about what i'm hearing from constituents in the commonwealth in the last week and then in particular to direct a message to federal