the United States is too small and fragile a basket for the Internet Archive to keep all our history in.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins it's a slam dunk! maybe a newly-deferential-to-the-executive Supreme Court can be persuaded to "unitary-executive" all precedent out of existence, but that speculation is hardly any kind of license to "take it to the wood chipper" as a fact on the ground, without even a memo from OLC trying to justify it. this is just Musk moving fast and breaking people. your whole case is ex post backfilling of that.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins That set up purposes for US foreign policy. JFK creates AID then as a purely executive construction, which a President could reorganize away. In 1997, Congress wants to formalize the organization of US foreign policy, formalizes the status quo in law, and defines a time limited procedure under which it might be modified. That time limit is long passed. The Congressional formalization of the US foreign policy apparatus is complete.

@realcaseyrollins @Phil To what conclusion? That something Congress establishes in law can only be unestablished by Congress?

@Phil @realcaseyrollins Congress declares the agency exists, then describes all kinds of stuff about it, attributes purposes and functions to it. It describes a potential reorganization — which could potentially abolish it! — and attaches a deadline to that. After the deadline has passed and it has not been abolished, it has clearly enshrined the existence of the agency as a matter of law.

@realcaseyrollins @Phil No. Nothing must exist in perpetuity. The Constitution can be constitutionally abolished by amendment (everything except equal suffrage of states in a Senate which would no longer exist). But only Congress can end USAID's existence.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins to the degree Congress gives the executive discretion in how its expenditures are administered, that's fine. if Congress does not explicitly allocate funds to AID, the executive can pursue its purposes through other aspects of state, sure.

but AID must continue to exist. and any expenditures specifically allocated to AID must be spent for its intended purposes through AID.

@realcaseyrollins @Phil Congressional action doesn't sunset unless the law they pass explicitly imposes such a sunset. absent some explicitly enacted executive option to abolish, only Congress can undo what Congress had said must exist.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins "there is within the executive branch of Government the United
States Agency for International Development as an entity described in
section 104 of title 5, United States Code."

@realcaseyrollins @Phil the only entity that can defund AID is Congress. Congress has power of the purse! it's crown jewel Congressional power! the Trump Administration can organize AID as it wants, but it still has to do what Congress established it for, including spending any money for any purposes Congress mandates.

The Executive Branch's job is to follow those mandates well, competently, effectively. It shouldn't spend the money wastefully or fraudulently. That's not what Congress mandated!

@Phil @realcaseyrollins yes. an administration could internally reorganize AID! but AID must exist, and it must pursue the purposes for which Congress mandated it, until Congress unmandates it.

taking something to the "wood chipper" means destroying it. that is illegal. is taping over the name of US AID and removing all signange an internal reorganization?

what DOGE was clearly doing was abolishing. yes, they'll be stopped, because it's illegal. it's rich for you to try to rely on that.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins *under this division* sheesh. a reorganization exercise that expired in 1998.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins PEPFAR, established by GWB, administered by USAID, has saved conservatively 18M lives. maybe you contest the stats. but boy you are awfully glib about this stuff. sex clinics!

i think Trump people have said they mean to continue PEPFAR. there have been interruptions of medication however which risks emergence of resistant strains of HIV, endangering us all.

@realcaseyrollins USAID was, as @Phil says, initially established by executive order under JFK to pursue objectives set out in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

but it was formally codified into a Congressionally mandated agency in the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1997 https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-bill/1757/text

what Congress mandates only Congress can undo.

this was less than 10 minutes of Googling. willful ignorance.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins willfully blind. even the aid they mean to send they've broken the competence to do so. they are the epitome of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "careless people". https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/usaid-trump-elon-musk-cuts

the part of the Federal government that is most dysfunctional and in need of radical change is Congress. it has been optimized for job security and internal stability at the expense of effective governance.

but the only take on electoral reform from this administration is Trump should have a 3rd term.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins There is everything illegal about it, food aid is rotting, people who would have been going hungry, and you are willfully blind. Might USAID have been reformed? Sure. That's what Congress is for, and you wind things down to minimize harms, if you decide you are going to wind things down.

@realcaseyrollins @Phil yes, we do have US citizens in the West Bank, we did in Gaza hopefully by now they've been evacuated but i don't know. we've had several US citizens killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank https://www.npr.org/2024/10/10/nx-s1-5106059/west-bank-gaza-israel-justice-department