Lifelong Edgewater resident Steven Ramsey, along with about 40 other laid off and furloughed USAID employees, gathered in the shadow of the 51-foot, jet-black steel and aluminum structure in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on Wednesday.

Anxious group members prepared the pleas they would attempt to make to members of Congress to provide additional oversight in the continuing resolution passed by the U.S. House on Tuesday. They wanted senators to amend the bill to make the Trump administration spend funds already appropriated for foreign aid.

The United States Agency for International Development, which was created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, is responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance.

“Trust what you know is enough,” one member of the group said, encouraging her peers before their encounters with lawmakers. “Don’t be afraid to say, ‘This is impoundment, this is illegal.’”

Many of the former employees refused to speak on the record or be photographed for fear of retribution.

The group requested letters from federal employees and constituents on behalf of USAID last week. By Wednesday, they had more than 300 addressed to members of Congress.

Ramsey, 33, was one of several people leading groups to congressional offices across Capitol Hill. Each group delivered letters from constituents voicing concerns over cuts that have eliminated 83% of the agency’s programs.

“The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X Monday. “We intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping (approximately 1000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department.”

Ramsey, a former employee of a Bethesda-based USAID contractor, visited the offices of Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, among others, with his team.

Other groups visited Maryland Democrats including Reps. Jamie Raskin, Sarah Elfreth, and April McClain Delaney, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks. Much of the messaging targeted what the former federal workers called misinformation spread by the Trump administration. The groups were also requested meetings with lawmakers, though many received blank stares from staffers and denials.

Ramsey, a manila envelope full of constituent letters tucked under his right arm, said many believe USAID is a charitable program consuming mass amounts of the federal budget. Rather, he said the aid disbursed by the agency is a critical geopolitical tool that strengthens American national security and economic influence overseas.

In fiscal year 2023, the federal government spent $71.9 billion on foreign aid. That figure represents 1.2% of the year’s total federal spending, according to the Pew Research Center.

“It sounds corny, but with USAID I could be making the world a better place: eradicating poverty, providing economic opportunities, all while adding to the national security and economic interest of the United States overseas,” Ramsey said.

Most recently, Ramsey was involved in projects involving Indonesian waste management, water sanitation and hygiene. He said projects like this in Southeast Asia and others across the world counter rising threats from adversaries like China and Russia.

“USAID is not just foreign aid,” Ramsey said. “When you deliver lifesaving medicine, food aid, and improve basic services in these countries and you slap an American flag on it, that buys good will. That good will can later be cashed in for military cooperation, intelligence, trade deals, you name it.”

The effort by USAID workers on Capitol Hill came after Elfreth, a freshman House member, introduced her first bill Tuesday that would strengthen protections for probationary federal workers recently fired by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The Protect Our Probationary Employees Act would allow recently fired federal employees to pick up their probationary period where they left off if they are reinstated in their jobs.

Elfreth represents a district that includes Anne Arundel County, which has more than 15,000 federal civilian jobs, not including classified military intelligence jobs like those at the National Security Agency, according to Dinah Winnick, director of communications for the Maryland Department of Labor.

Winnick said 25,000 federal civilian workers live in Anne Arundel County. The department does not have access to the number of federal jobs in Anne Arundel County that have been affected by federal actions, she added.

Winnick did say, however, that between Jan. 21 and March 4, Maryland received unemployment claims from 71 former federal workers who live in Anne Arundel.

She said there has not been a significant uptick in unemployment insurance claims filed in the county.

The group of former USAID employees plans to return to Capitol Hill every Monday and Wednesday to counter the narrative that the agency is unaccountable and full of waste and abuse, Ramsey said.

“To say we’re trying to get our jobs back is a little bit of a pipe dream, at least in the short term,” he said. “The administration has been very clear that they want USAID dead.”

Have a news tip? Contact James Matheson at jmatheson@baltsun.com, 443-842-2344 or on X @jamesmatheson__