Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Hello everybody,
Speaker 1: Welcome home, y'all. This is Angela Raie with Native Lamppod.
Speaker 1: Every Tuesday, I do a solo podcast, and that is
Speaker 1: what we're doing today.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I wish I were coming to you on better terms,
Speaker 1: but as you all know, there is so so much
Speaker 1: going on throughout the world and of course on these
Speaker 1: shores of these United States, and so what we're talking
Speaker 1: about today is I know many of you all were
Speaker 1: recalled just a few weeks ago we talked about the
Speaker 1: federal funding freeze. We know that there was a temporary
Speaker 1: pause of agency grants, loans and other financial assistance programs,
Speaker 1: as issued in a January twenty seventh memo from OMB
Speaker 1: from the acting director at the time. Since then, the
Speaker 1: man who wrote the OMB portion of the memo in
Speaker 1: Project twenty five has been sworn in. His name is
Speaker 1: Russell Balt. He is now the director of O and
Speaker 1: B and he has not stopped on these temporary pausings
Speaker 1: of grants, loans and federal funds, including firing and laying
Speaker 1: off federal workers who work every single day with our
Speaker 1: taxpayer dollars right to make life much easier for us
Speaker 1: here on these shores and those abroad. And so I
Speaker 1: wanted to just dive into the many ways in which
Speaker 1: folks have been hurt so far. You guys, we are
Speaker 1: twenty eight days into this administration and it feels like
Speaker 1: a month of Sundays. It feels like it is a
Speaker 1: NonStop flow of trauma, of tragedy, and we are still
Speaker 1: looking for the triumph, but we're gonna hold on to hope.
Speaker 1: So today we're gonna talk to three people who are
Speaker 1: either government employees, have been funded through government by contracts,
Speaker 1: or from grants. And I want you all to hear
Speaker 1: these very human stories so that you understand what is
Speaker 1: at stake. I think what we have gotten accustomed to
Speaker 1: is hearing stories on the gram, seeing people do an
Speaker 1: instructional on TikTok, and we divorce ourselves from the empathy
Speaker 1: and the compassion needed as humans to really ensure policy change.
Speaker 1: So today I want you to hear from folks who
Speaker 1: are directly impacted. First, I'm going to bring into this
Speaker 1: conversation Miss User, who is in the DMV area. She
Speaker 1: is the former Operations Assistant at International Organization for Migration
Speaker 1: under the United States Refugee Admissions Program also known as
Speaker 1: us RAP, which is an inter agency entity that was
Speaker 1: supported by HHS, State and so many others in its
Speaker 1: work with United Nations. So we're going to bring in
Speaker 1: misuser first and let's have this conversation.
Speaker 3: Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. I am so
Speaker 1: sorry about what you've ex experience. I want our listeners
Speaker 1: and the folks who are tuned into YouTube today just
Speaker 1: to hear from you about what your experience was. When
Speaker 1: did you learn of the funding for your program being cut?
Speaker 1: How many people were impacted, and how are you feeling now.
Speaker 3: I think I actually kind of knew when Trump got
Speaker 3: elected that there was a possibility that my program was
Speaker 3: going to be downsized, But I don't think any of
Speaker 3: us imagined for him to completely cut it. I think
Speaker 3: we all knew downsizing was coming across all US funding
Speaker 3: because that is what happened last time, but we none
Speaker 3: of us expected him to come in and just stop
Speaker 3: the funding. So and I think it makes it worse
Speaker 3: because it's like he's not stopping the funding for my program,
Speaker 3: only he just he paused, everything humanitarian world is in
Speaker 3: shambles right now. The only way to find a job
Speaker 3: is for me to switch careers. And I think for
Speaker 3: me that's really challenging because it's like, I don't do
Speaker 3: this for the money. I love the work I do.
Speaker 3: I love working with people. I love working with the refugees.
Speaker 3: So to have this person come in and just take
Speaker 3: it away. I've spent so long just trying to get
Speaker 3: into this field and getting into the federal workforce or
Speaker 3: international development or humanitan world. It's already hard as it is,
Speaker 3: so for somebody to make it in, especially somebody like
Speaker 3: me who's like Muslim, black and I'm a woman, it's
Speaker 3: just it's like really saddening, and I'm also really angry
Speaker 3: at the same time because I feel like it's just
Speaker 3: been taken away from under me.
Speaker 1: And can you take a step back and talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about you said it was hard for you
Speaker 1: to break into this work. Give us an example of
Speaker 1: your day to day or one of the highlights from
Speaker 1: the type of work you were doing before the funding
Speaker 1: stream was cut off by the Trump administration.
Speaker 3: I think just working with the refugees and also my colleagues,
Speaker 3: the office that I work in is very, very diverse,
Speaker 3: which I love. So usually, like in other spaces that
Speaker 3: I've worked in, I'm usually either the only black girl,
Speaker 3: usually the only Muslim, or sometimes even the only girl.
Speaker 3: So this was the one place where I felt like
Speaker 3: all parts of me were accepted. And it's like I
Speaker 3: work with people who enjoy the work they're doing. I'm
Speaker 3: meeting new people every day. But also I think hearing
Speaker 3: these refugee stories kind of helps me connect. I love
Speaker 3: connecting with me and it helps me connect with them
Speaker 3: because my parents immigrated here, so it's like I understand
Speaker 3: the challenges of coming to a new world and having
Speaker 3: to relearn everything and like being torn away from your family.
Speaker 3: And I think having this funding taken away, I think
Speaker 3: it breaks my heart because it's like these families are
Speaker 3: now being torn apart, and it's just like we can't
Speaker 3: do anything. We're not allowed to like answer the phones,
Speaker 3: we can't answer emails. And at the same time as
Speaker 3: I'm worrying for these refugees, I have to worry about
Speaker 3: finding a job right and it's like I think I
Speaker 3: struggle every day because it's like the workforce right.
Speaker 1: Now is terrible, so it's on a snap just for
Speaker 1: a moment. You're talking about receiving emails that you're not
Speaker 1: able to respond to. Can you give us an example
Speaker 1: of something that's come up where it's breaking your heart
Speaker 1: to not be able to respond to the need of
Speaker 1: a refugee family.
Speaker 3: I think getting calls on the hotline. For the first
Speaker 3: couple of days, we were receiving calls on the hot line.
Speaker 3: And we do work with multiple agencies, and one of
Speaker 3: the agencies, a lot of the agentries we work with,
Speaker 3: our resettlement agencies, and the people that we work with,
Speaker 3: they're all they were all fired within they order. When
Speaker 3: in Friday Monday all of them are gone.
Speaker 1: How many so.
Speaker 3: There we work with about seven agencies and they think
Speaker 3: about one thousand to two thousand people got fired there.
Speaker 3: That was Monday. And I think I started to worry
Speaker 3: because I'm like, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get cut.
Speaker 3: It's just a matter of time of win. And you know,
Speaker 3: I knew cuts were gonna come, but I didn't expect
Speaker 3: all of us to get cut. Yeah, my company alone
Speaker 3: fired three thousand people and we don't get we don't
Speaker 3: really get severance. A lot of us don't get severance,
Speaker 3: and because we work for the international organization, we all
Speaker 3: so don'tet unemployment. So it's like once we got let go,
Speaker 3: money stopped coming in, and obviously you need money to survive.
Speaker 3: And it's already hard enough to see. And I think
Speaker 3: every day I'm walking into apply for jobs, I'm also
Speaker 3: seeing people say I got for a load, I got
Speaker 3: let go, And it's so challenging because the workforce is
Speaker 3: already terrible. So now I'm going against not only the
Speaker 3: people who've let go under US RAP, but the people
Speaker 3: who let go of USAID, Department of Education, people, government
Speaker 3: workers who were on probation. And I think it just
Speaker 3: really breaks my heart because it's like I'm questioning where
Speaker 3: are our leaders? Because I see everybody coming together, all
Speaker 3: of us are coming together, we're trying to help each other,
Speaker 3: But where are.
Speaker 1: Leaders When you're saying where are your leaders? What are
Speaker 1: you asking leadership to do? And where are you looking
Speaker 1: for leadership in this moment.
Speaker 3: To step up to do something?
Speaker 1: But who I called? Who are who do you want
Speaker 1: to do that?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Who are the people that Congress? Congress? Congress?
Speaker 3: They need to step it up because this isn't just
Speaker 3: affect us in the US, this affects people globally. The
Speaker 3: companies that we work with have people all over there
Speaker 3: in the world. So these people are being let go
Speaker 3: all around the world. And as an American, I think
Speaker 3: a part of me feels guilty because eventually I will
Speaker 3: find a job and I will be okay. But that's
Speaker 3: not the same thing for other people who might live
Speaker 3: in Ghana or Sudan or Palestine or anywhere around the world.
Speaker 3: And it's like these fundings they do save people's lives.
Speaker 3: They provide medicine for people, they give educate access to education.
Speaker 3: And I'm a big education advocate because I know I
Speaker 3: wouldn't be here without my education, and so I think
Speaker 3: it's really heartbreaking to see these people struggling and not
Speaker 3: having access to their medicine. A lot of them potentially
Speaker 3: could die. And I just feel like Congress is not
Speaker 3: doing enough. They're not standing up, They're not doing anything,
Speaker 3: and I just don't understand why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thank you so much for your time and
Speaker 1: for your story. I agree with you. We do need
Speaker 1: Congress to step it up, but we also need to
Speaker 1: make sure that we got the same heat for folks
Speaker 1: on both sides of the aisle. The Republicans are in
Speaker 1: the majority, and they are just being a rubber stamp
Speaker 1: for everything that Trump administration is doing. So I'm hopeful
Speaker 1: that there will be change and that somebody in the
Speaker 1: Trump administration will comply with the corridor. But thank you
Speaker 1: so much, mister, use your fair time, thank you for
Speaker 1: having me, making me absolutely I want you all to
Speaker 1: hear some of these stories some of us are reading
Speaker 1: about different people, how they're being impacted, their families, who
Speaker 1: they're responsible for financially, the kinds of work they did
Speaker 1: within the federal government. We have our tentacles, the American people.
Speaker 1: The American government has its tentacles in so many different
Speaker 1: spaces across the globe. And I don't even really, I
Speaker 1: don't know if we realize yet just how impactful these cuts,
Speaker 1: these funding freezes really are. And so I want to
Speaker 1: bring another person in who is a government contractor. His
Speaker 1: name is Justin Rogers.
Speaker 3: He is.
Speaker 1: A former project associate with RTI International, and that work
Speaker 1: they were doing fell within USA. I D and you
Speaker 1: all have mostly probably heard about everything that was happening
Speaker 1: at us AID and how expansive those cuts have been.
Speaker 1: The lives that have been already lost in this short
Speaker 1: time frame from cutting off the fundings figot, you know,
Speaker 1: in places like the Philippines and others. So we're going
Speaker 1: to bring in Justin now to talk about his story. Hi, Justin,
Speaker 1: how are you?
Speaker 2: Haianzel? Good?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. I know that
Speaker 1: it takes courage. We're asking you all to step forward
Speaker 1: and talk about what is happening in your world. When
Speaker 1: did you learn about your fund's being cut off? And
Speaker 1: what is the impact at your company and for you personally.
Speaker 2: So our work started being impacted day one, honestly, January,
Speaker 2: Martin Luther King day in the day after that, we
Speaker 2: started receiving stock work orders, we started receiving notice that
Speaker 2: we were not going to be able to pay certain
Speaker 2: costs from a subcontractor. And then recently a few days ago,
Speaker 2: I got a termination notice on one of my projects.
Speaker 2: And so on Friday, we've been having these ongoing leadership
Speaker 2: meetings in our leadership at first said we might reduce
Speaker 2: hours that staff work, some of you will be for
Speaker 2: load and come back. They were just looking at all
Speaker 2: kinds of different options, and so on Friday, I received
Speaker 2: the news that I was one of the three hundred
Speaker 2: people for my department to be for load.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised that you were for load?
Speaker 2: I wasn't surprised at all. I had seen it coming
Speaker 2: and hearing. I think what surprised me the most how
Speaker 2: faster king and when they said this was going to
Speaker 2: be an aggressive one hundred days. It has been a
Speaker 2: month of Sundays already and it hasn't been one hundred days.
Speaker 2: So I can only imagine what they might be getting
Speaker 2: to by day one hundred and what law or book
Speaker 2: they're back there unraveling. I was very surprised that how
Speaker 2: fast it came. I think it moved very quick. I
Speaker 2: didn't expect it to come this quick. I thought to myself, Okay,
Speaker 2: you have a good two maybe three months before things
Speaker 2: start working its way through the judiciary system. But Trump
Speaker 2: Trump worked fast and his administration they worked very quick.
Speaker 2: But I was not surprised that my work was going
Speaker 2: to come to it. And I felt like with Project
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five being out there and the rhetoric that's
Speaker 2: been out there about international development in the field I
Speaker 2: work in, I saw shifts coming. And I know Republicans
Speaker 2: are very big on localization, which is problematic in and
Speaker 2: of its off because you can't have local organizations competing
Speaker 2: when they don't even have the resources to compete. So again,
Speaker 2: I definitely do see this trend coming.
Speaker 1: When you describe the work that you were doing, how
Speaker 1: would you describe it? What was the nature of the
Speaker 1: work you all did with USAID?
Speaker 2: The nature of the work was very It was very
Speaker 2: much business like. So although I worked for a nonprofit,
Speaker 2: USAID was our client and they were paying us to
Speaker 2: go implement a project, So we had to abide by
Speaker 2: their regulations, their stipulations, and we had different types of
Speaker 2: contracts that we would work with them. Certain things on
Speaker 2: a project we could build USA for, we couldn't build
Speaker 2: them for. I will say we had a very decent
Speaker 2: relationship to company with a client. We had a good
Speaker 2: relationship because we we get tons of USA funded projects
Speaker 2: via our organization versus other competitors.
Speaker 1: But when you think about the type of work that
Speaker 1: you were doing, if you were to describe your impact
Speaker 1: at your organization, what is the nature of the work, like,
Speaker 1: what do you all do for USAID or did you
Speaker 1: do for USAID?
Speaker 2: Okay, right, so we do the whole vertical of what
Speaker 2: it takes to implement a project. So I worked closely
Speaker 2: in the operations and logistics. I worked on procurement, and
Speaker 2: so if we were looking for a new subcontractors to
Speaker 2: carry out capacity building or dissemination or stakeholder engagement in
Speaker 2: a certain country, we would go with a local partner.
Speaker 2: We go through the procurement process, we on board them,
Speaker 2: and then they would kind of carry out some of
Speaker 2: that work and they'd check in with the technical team
Speaker 2: and country. And so our team was split. I worked
Speaker 2: on the home office side in a project management unit,
Speaker 2: and then you have the technical side who worked in
Speaker 2: the field or in the country in these projects. And
Speaker 2: so people who worked on the technical side more so
Speaker 2: had more expertise. But I think to answer your question,
Speaker 2: I felt very wholesome, and I would say everyone that
Speaker 2: we did we put to other large scale projects.
Speaker 1: We changed curriculums, suggestin what I'm trying to do here,
Speaker 1: and I know is hard. I can tell like I
Speaker 1: love this conversation with you because I can tell your
Speaker 1: very logistics focus. There are people at home that one
Speaker 1: don't know what USAID does and two when you're talking
Speaker 1: about technical assistance and stakeholder engagement. What does that look
Speaker 1: like for you know, a project surrounding HIV AIDS in
Speaker 1: South Africa, or like, what are the types of projects
Speaker 1: that you all were working on. One thing that I
Speaker 1: hear that is really significant about what you said kind
Speaker 1: of shifting shifting through a little bit is you all
Speaker 1: would find local businesses that could do the work for
Speaker 1: you all on the ground, and that's ensuring that you're
Speaker 1: supporting economic development in certain regions. But give me an
Speaker 1: example of something that is going to be hit really
Speaker 1: hard because you all are no longer funded and able
Speaker 1: to see a project through to fruition. Like, what is
Speaker 1: an example of one of those projects.
Speaker 2: So there's a project in Senegal that I actually worked
Speaker 2: closely on and it was an international education and we
Speaker 2: worked in health, international education, we worked in governance, we
Speaker 2: helped girls, we helped the disabled, We did every sort
Speaker 2: of scope of work here. And so with this project
Speaker 2: in Senegal, we were working with the ministry and we
Speaker 2: were working on bringing bilinguisms, so French and then whichever
Speaker 2: was the most locally spoken second spoken language in Senegal,
Speaker 2: and those were going to be the leading languages in curriculum.
Speaker 2: And we were piloting in five regions at first in Senegal,
Speaker 2: and we were going to expand to the whole country,
Speaker 2: and so we were working with organizations site the Gates
Speaker 2: Foundation to change this curriculum. We're working with teachers on
Speaker 2: the ground, principles ministers, and we're working with the education department.
Speaker 2: So it was this holistic development of not just coming
Speaker 2: in and building the water pipe, but actually telling people,
Speaker 2: you know, this is where you get the this is
Speaker 2: how you form the plastic, this is how you drove
Speaker 2: for the water, and really helping people foster community amongst
Speaker 2: one another.
Speaker 1: I love that. I think it's so important and I
Speaker 1: was asking you even when we before we started today.
Speaker 1: There are certain things when we work in environments where
Speaker 1: we're in the weeds on it, and we do it
Speaker 1: all the time on the podcast. For throwing out acronyms,
Speaker 1: I say today OPM or omb and people don't know
Speaker 1: what that is, and so we have to bring them
Speaker 1: into our world so they understand this. You know, the
Speaker 1: far reaching impact of and the devastation that will come
Speaker 1: because of these cuts. So justin I'm so grateful for
Speaker 1: your time. I hope that you will continue to spread
Speaker 1: the word on this and that you find philanthropic entities
Speaker 1: like you talked about the Gates Foundation that will continue
Speaker 1: this work because it is so important. We just you know,
Speaker 1: we're up against an entity and administration that talks about
Speaker 1: America first, but they don't understand what it means to
Speaker 1: be a global partner and a global citizen. So if
Speaker 1: you would for a minute, what would you say to
Speaker 1: folks who may be in the comments and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't care about this stuff about anybody's clean water overseas.
Speaker 1: We don't even have clean water here. What do you
Speaker 1: say to them?
Speaker 2: I studied this in school, and so immediately I'll say
Speaker 2: realism as a realist, cool, you don't care about it
Speaker 2: as an American? The Chinese do, the Russians do, our
Speaker 2: competitors do. So then what then America is not this
Speaker 2: leading military superpower that it paints itself to be and
Speaker 2: that it wants to be. So, I mean, we don't
Speaker 2: have clean water in Michigan. They still have that issue
Speaker 2: up there, and so I hear people's problems with that.
Speaker 2: But I think when you set up a hegemony and
Speaker 2: you set up a national state like America, you have
Speaker 2: to sort of be involved just like you said, you
Speaker 2: got to have a little tentacles everywhere because everything comes
Speaker 2: back to you, and you are sad to say, controlling
Speaker 2: that master role. And again if America does not control it.
Speaker 2: Just like I read an article or they were contemplating
Speaker 2: if America was going to leave the World Bank, America
Speaker 2: left the World Bank, China was just coming by their shares.
Speaker 2: And so now you have kind of China moving onto
Speaker 2: the global stage. And I don't think that's what America wants.
Speaker 2: So I think a lot of these things will be reevaluated.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time justin thank you so much
Speaker 1: for being here. Thank you, thank you. Wow. So again,
Speaker 1: I think it is so important. Initially I really wanted
Speaker 1: you all to hear from folks who only work for
Speaker 1: the FEDS. But I think what is so significant about
Speaker 1: what we've heard so far is that this has this
Speaker 1: broad sweeping impact. It has this broad sweeping impact. If
Speaker 1: you work for the FEDS, work for a contractor that
Speaker 1: has federal grants, you work for a small business that
Speaker 1: has a small business loan, you work for an intergovernmental
Speaker 1: agency on the state, local level, you are impacted by this.
Speaker 1: So I think one of the things that we can
Speaker 1: note is that sometimes changes happen and we are hit
Speaker 1: regardless of who's in charge. We know that programs are eliminated,
Speaker 1: they're cut, they're revamped, they're redone. But I think that
Speaker 1: the way that the Donald Trump administration, Elon Musk administration,
Speaker 1: the Department of Government Efficiency has moved is with reckless
Speaker 1: abandon without doing any real due diligence, and it's causing
Speaker 1: so much more harm than good. And so I think
Speaker 1: it is important for us to take note of the
Speaker 1: number of people who have been impacted by these cuts.
Speaker 1: I am hopeful that we will continue to press on
Speaker 1: to fight. As we heard from Misuser earlier, Congress, we're
Speaker 1: calling on you, right. We need to be calling our
Speaker 1: members of Congress at two zero two two two four
Speaker 1: three one two one. Let them know how a program
Speaker 1: being cut impacts you. Let let them know that you've
Speaker 1: lost your job. Go onto these different committee websites, whether
Speaker 1: it's financial services or education, or the budget or appropriations
Speaker 1: or Government Oversight and government Reform, all of these different
Speaker 1: sites to the judiciary, complain, send in your whistleblow or complaint,
Speaker 1: and let folks know how you've been impacted and how
Speaker 1: they must help you. That is our most reasonable service.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if we have any questions today,
Speaker 1: but if not, we will go ahead and in early
Speaker 1: and we're going to keep this going. We want to
Speaker 1: keep these conversations moving. We want to hear from folks
Speaker 1: who have been impacted directly or indirectly by the federal
Speaker 1: funding freeze, by these layoffs, by the mass firings and
Speaker 1: the force resignation. So thank you all so very much
Speaker 1: for your time. I am going to tell you, as
Speaker 1: we always do on our main show that drops every
Speaker 1: Thursday on YouTube and on iHeart wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: Welcome home, y'all. I'll see you soon. Native Lampard is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media.
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