U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions are rippling outward from Washington down to Atlanta, where Emory students, faculty and community members are feeling the federal government’s budget cuts firsthand.
On Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order pausing all foreign aid and halting the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) operations for 90 days. USAID is an independent federal agency whose mission was to provide support to countries across the world. Following the executive order, his administration announced plans to cut 90% of the agency’s international aid contracts. By March 28, the administration informed Congress that it would eliminate most of the remaining jobs at USAID and shut down the agency.
The federal government terminated Shruti Nemala (26B) who said she was surprised to learn she was being terminated from an internship at USAID due to funding cuts.
“I was originally told that I was not going to be affected by the cuts because I was technically hired before Trump was elected,” Nemala said. “Then when I was doing my orientation, meeting with my managers … I’ve been doing my security clearance, which took me around six months to get, and then just randomly I got an email saying that I was actually being terminated.”
Nemala said that the government’s uncertain future has impacted her career plans.
“Originally, I was thinking of doing something more on the intersection of business and government, and that that is probably not something I’m going to explore as much, just because I don’t think there’s a lot of opportunities for it,” Nemala said.
Throughout the country, many students experienced disruptions in internships and job opportunities due to Trump policy changes.
Delaney Arnold (26Ox) said the decreasing number of internship opportunities in her home state of New Jersey following the recent budget cuts complicated her summer plans. Arnold, an aspiring human health major, said the cuts are wiping away public health opportunities previously offered in her hometown.
“There’s several programs, including county programs, that typically have internships in public health and they’re just completely not offering them for this year,” Arnold said.
On March 27, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to lay off 10,000 workers, including about 2,400 staff members at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Arnold said she is questioning her career choice amid the “uncertainty” in the field of public health. She added that she considered whether Public Health would even be a viable career path when she graduates.
“I’ve definitely considered whether I should switch my major,” Arnold said. “There’s a lot of worry that comes with it, especially for fields that are so important, like public health, where you know it contributes to public safety.”
Associate Professor of Political Science Andra Gillespie said the potential long-term effects of the Trump administration cuts on leadership and expertise are a huge loss for students hoping to pursue careers in public policy.
“Losing out on that generation might make it more difficult to be able to solve some problems,” Gillespie said. “In a few years, it might mean that you have fewer people with the requisite type of knowledge and experience of these agencies to be in a strong position to be good leaders of it.”
Gillespie warned that these administrative cuts could weaken the United States’ political and global power in the long term. She added that these cuts could reduce the strength of U.S. agencies during times of instability.
“Some of the cuts in places related to global public health or USAID, where the U.S. is ceding soft power, and that might haunt us geopolitically later,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie emphasized the difficulty of the adjustment period that students and other federal workers must endure amid budget cuts across agencies throughout the federal government.
“People are going to adjust to the new normal,” Gillespie said. “That adjustment is possibly going to be painful, and people should be prepared for that.”
