As the U.S. government and court system grapples with President Donald Trump’s administrative efforts to reduce or scrap the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Town of Carrboro passed a resolution in solidarity with the agency’s workforce that has lost their jobs.
During the council’s business meeting on Tuesday, Carrboro Council Member Randee Haven-O’Donnell introduced and read a resolution calling for the “immediate lifting of the stop work order on foreign assistance programs” and the reopening of USAID. The measure passed unanimously among the council members.
“The stop-work order and shutdown of USAID,” Haven-O’Donnell said as part of the resolution, “has had an immediate and critical economic impact on Carrboro, our county, Triangle region and the state of North Carolina, as foreign assistance program and funding is cut from North Carolina universities, nonprofit and partner organizations, and has a crucial and devastating impact on small, USAID-funded Carrboro nonprofits and their employees.”
The resolution, as Haven-O’Donnell shared, specifically points to funding cuts to agricultural programs at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke in addition to other nearby universities. Several nonprofits with local footprints, such as FHI 360, RTI International, IntraHealth International and the Eleanor Crook Foundation are cited as being impacted in the town’s document.
Trump signed an executive order in his second term’s initial days freezing foreign aid amid a 90-day review of all such spending, alleging USAID programs were not just wasteful but corrupt and saying they do not align with his foreign policy approach. Since then, several nonprofits and organizations filed a lawsuit claiming the freeze violates federal law and seeking payments for work finished through Feb. 13. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled alongside a U.S. district court judge that those payments ought to be made and the funding temporarily restored amid the Trump administration’s review.
Still, though, a chilling effect on the work of such groups is already being felt and the long-term future of USAID and similar federal efforts are unclear. The federal government placed all USAID workers on administrative leave starting Feb. 23 ahead of a “reduction in force.” Several locally furloughed and former USAID workers, as well as other community with ties to the agency, attended the Tuesday council meeting to hear the reading, with the town taking and sharing a group photo of them afterward promoting the resolution.
(From left to right): Karin Jacquin, Stephanie Martin, John Nicholson, Emily Nicholson, Jennifer Yourkavitch, Melanie Joiner, Brianna Clarke-Schwelm, Kirsten Krueger, Lucy Harber, Caitlin Williams and Whitney Fry attend the Carrboro Town Council meeting on March 4, 2025 to hear the town’s resolution calling for USAID funds and employees to be reinstated. (Photo via the Town of Carrboro.)
Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee added after Haven-O’Donnell’s reading that while her colleague spearheaded the draft, the council members agreed the message is one they could all rally behind.
“It’s needed — because there’s going to be more [changes like this],” the mayor said before the vote. “And we’re all, unfortunately, going to be impacted as these decisions continue to be made at the federal and the state level.”
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, Foushee delivered proclamations honoring 2025 Creek Week, International Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, and a statement denouncing femicide — the term for the murder of women based on their gender. Those resolutions, as well as the USAID measure, can be found on the town’s website.
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