数十名官员在美国国际开发署人道主义援助局在周末收到了终止通知，尽管美国国务卿马尔科·卢比奥事先保证，该机构的“核心救生药物，医疗服务，食品，住所和物质援助”将得到保留。
根据美国广播公司新闻获得的信件副本，从周五深夜开始，人道主义援助局的几名现已离职的雇员收到了美国国际开发署人事官员的解雇信。
BHA是政府负责国际紧急救灾的主要联邦机构，与军方密切合作，在地震、台风、飓风和其他全球自然灾害发生后提供人道主义援助。
BHA军方的人道主义援助顾问Serena Simeoli告诉ABC新闻，她在周五晚上收到了一封解雇信，但这封信不是写给她的，也没有包括她的名字或合同号码，所以她仍然“困惑”该怎么办。
Simeoli说，她的大约60名员工的小团队在“突发灾难、复杂紧急情况”期间提供了帮助，包括海地和叙利亚的地震、菲律宾的台风、加勒比海的飓风以及中东和乌克兰的冲突。
西梅利说，如果没有BHA，美国在全球紧急救援中发挥有意义的作用“将非常具有挑战性”，“我想我有点害怕想象没有我们会怎样”。
“我们做的工作很重要，直到我们面临另一场灾难，我们才知道它有多重要，”她警告说。
“我为这个组织奉献了太多的生命...我会夜以继日地工作，因为我相信我们正在做的事情，”西莫利说。“看到并成为正在发生的事情的一部分是非常痛苦的。”
另一名前BHA官员表示，一些同事报告收到了多份离职通知，包括本周末通宵工作期间收到的一些。
这位前海军官员说，他在美国国际开发署任职期间，应对了一些世界上最具挑战性的自然灾害。
“这让我严重质疑，为什么我要把整个成年生活奉献给为我们的政府和人民在世界上最危险的地方运水，”这位人士说，由于担心遭到报复，他要求不透露姓名。
卢比奥在一篇一月底备忘录他将给予紧急豁免，允许美国国际开发署的人道主义使命继续——但指出“恢复是暂时的性质。”
美国国务院代表没有立即回应ABC新闻的置评请求。
Trump administration guts USAID's humanitarian office, despite pledge to preserve its work
Dozens of officials in theU.S. Agency for International Development'shumanitarian aid bureau received termination notices over the weekend, despite prior assurances from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the agency's "core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and substance assistance" would be preserved.
Beginning late Friday night, several now-former employees at the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance received termination letters from personnel officers at USAID, according to copies of those letters obtained by ABC News.
BHA is the government's lead federal agency for international emergency disaster relief, working closely with the military to provide humanitarian aid in the wake of earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes and other global natural disasters.
Serena Simeoli, a Humanitarian Aid Adviser to the Military at BHA, told ABC News that she received a termination letter on Friday night, but that it was not addressed to her and did not include her name or contract number -- so she remains "confused" about what to do.
Simeoli said her small team of some 60 employees had assisted during "sudden-onset disasters, complex emergencies," including the earthquakes in Haiti and Syria, typhoons in the Philippines, hurricanes in the Caribbean, and the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Without BHA, "it is going to be very challenging" for the U.S. to play a meaningful role in global emergency relief, "and I think I'm a little scared to think how it might go without us," Simeoli said.
"The work that we do it matters, and we won't know how much it matters until we're presented with another catastrophic disaster," she warned.
"I've devoted so much of my life to this organization ... I would work around the clock because I believed in what we were doing," Simeoli said. "It's pretty painful to see and to be a part of what's been happening."
Another former BHA official said some colleagues reported receiving multiple termination notices, including some during the overnight hours this weekend.
That official, a former Marine, said that during his tenure with USAID he had responded to some of the world's most challenging natural disasters .
"It makes me seriously question why I dedicated my entire adult life to carrying water in the most dangerous places in the world for our government and its people," said the person, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation.
Rubio wrote in alate January memothat he would grant an emergency waiver to allow USAID's humanitarian missions to continue -- but noted that the "resumption is temporary in nature."
A State Department representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
