John Smyth
2025-02-07 17:32:26 UTC
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Permalink'Catholic Relief Services lays off staff, cuts programs after USAID
shakeup'
<https://www.ncronline.org/news/exclusive-catholic-relief-services-lays-staff-cuts-programs-after-usaid-shakeup>
'Catholic Relief Services is bracing for massive cuts — as much as 50%
this year — because of draconian reductions in U.S. foreign assistance
ordered by the Trump administration, according to an internal email from
the chief executive of the international relief organization.
CRS is the top recipient of funds from the U.S. Agency for International
Development, known as USAID, which the Trump administration has targeted
with a spending freeze, office closure and extensive staff cuts this
week.
Layoffs have already begun as CRS has been forced to begin shutting down
programs funded by USAID, which supplies about half of the Catholic
organization's $1.5 billion budget, said CRS president and CEO Sean
Callahan in a staffwide email sent Feb. 3.
"We anticipate that we will be a much smaller overall organization by
the end of this fiscal year," Callahan wrote in the email, which was
reviewed by National Catholic Reporter.
Contact NCR if you were affected
NCR is looking to speak to anyone affected by the layoffs and program
shutdown from Catholic Relief Services. Please email us at
***@ncronline.org. We can protect your confidentiality if you
request it.
CRS officials at its headquarters in Baltimore did not respond to
requests for comment. The U.S. bishops' conference, which created the
organization 82 years ago, also did not respond to a request for
comment.
Retired Tucson, Arizona, Bishop Gerald Kicanas, a former board chairman
of Catholic Relief Services, said eliminating USAID would be a huge
mistake. "These are desperate people, living in desperate situations,
struggling day by day, hour by hour," Kicanas told NCR.
The cuts would amount to one of the biggest blows ever to CRS, a relief
group founded in 1943 by Catholic bishops in the United States to serve
World War II survivors in Europe. CRS reaches more than 200 million
people in 121 countries on five continents, according to its website.
Callahan said that CRS has already received notifications that some
projects for which it is subrecipient have already been terminated and
that more are coming.
The staffing cuts and cost-saving measures would be across the board,
impacting all divisions and departments of CRS, Callahan said. Temporary
furloughs would not be enough to avoid staff cuts, he added.
The cuts will be devastating, said Stephen Colecchi, director of the
Office of International Justice and Peace for the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops from 2004 to 2018.
"To target this tiny portion of the federal budget in such a haphazard
and irresponsible way is going to cost people's lives and livelihoods,"
Colecchi said. "It is not a thoughtful or humane way to go about
treating programs that help the poorest of the poor all over the world."
CRS is holding an emergency briefing Feb. 6 on the foreign aid freeze.
USAID has been an early core target of President Donald Trump's efforts
to curtail government spending, led by billionaire Elon Musk who is
heading the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an
extragovernmental operation that has been empowered in the
administration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he is now running
USAID. While independently created by Congress, it is a part of the
State Department.
Democrats in Congress have challenged the legality of the attempts to
slash USAID funding or shutter the office entirely.
Inside CRS funding
Catholic Relief Services operated a budget of nearly $1.2 billion in
fiscal year 2023, per a 2024 audit.
Nearly half — $521 million — came from U.S. government grants and
agreements.
CRS received $493 million in donated non-financial assets (e.g.,
agricultural commodities, bed nets, pharmaceuticals, non-food items) at
no cost from the U.S. government along with other partners like United
Nations World Food Program and The Global Fund.
Overall, U.S. government support made up 62% of total CRS revenue and
support in 2023.
CRS received $284 million in private support through donations,
foundations and other means, which included donations of just under $8
million through the annual CRS Rice Bowl collection.
According to an August 2024 report by the Congressional Research
Service, CRS received $4.6 billion in funding from USAID over a
nine-year period (2013-2022 fiscal years), primarily for disaster
assistance.
About USAID
Instituted in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy and funded by Congress,
USAID is the central international humanitarian agency of the United
States.
In fiscal year 2024, USAID received more than $44 billion, which
accounted for 0.4% of the entire federal budget, according to
USAspending.gov.
Compared to other federal departments, USAID's share of the budget is a
sliver. In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. allocated $916 billion for
defense, or 3.4% of gross domestic product. The Defense Department
requested $849.8 billion for fiscal year 2025.
"If you want to review a program, you don't simply freeze it in place,
especially when local people are relying on it for lifesaving and
life-changing programs," Colecchi said. "What you do is a systematic
review for effectiveness and then you decide which programs are to
continue and which programs are to sunset.
"A blanket freeze, even for a short period of time, means staff will
have to be let go, programs will get interrupted and supply chains will
be disrupted," Colecchi added.
"It will really tarnish the reputation of our nation, which has always
had a good reputation in the area of humanitarian assistance."
Over a nine-year period — from the 2013 to 2022 fiscal years — Catholic
Relief Services received $4.6 billion in funding from USAID, primarily
for disaster assistance, according to an August 2024 report by the
Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress.
Church and faith-based organizations received less than 6% of USAID
funding for nonprofit organizations, with more than half of those funds
going to Catholic Relief Services, according to the Congressional
Research Service.
Among the programs and services provided by CRS: water and sanitation,
education, agriculture, health, microfinancing, climate change
resilience, as well as justice and peace-building programs in addition
to emergency and disaster assistance.
"CRS is the Gospel at work and reflects the best of American values,"
John Carr, former executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops' Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, told NCR.
CRS had 7,000 employees worldwide as of 2018 when it marked its 75th
anniversary.
Kicanas, CRS board chairman from 2010 to 2013, said that CRS is trusted
around the world. Pulling back programs that support starving and
suffering people will have serious ramifications.
"So it's not like a short freeze won't be insignificant," Kicanas said.
"It will be very significant for countless numbers of people in
countries around the world."
Kicanas said the Trump administration may not "understand the unintended
consequences of what a freeze will do, and the impact it will have."'