While the future of foreign aid faces uncertainty, a Fairfax County-based disaster response task force has not yet felt trickle-down effects of ongoing cuts at the federal level.
Virginia Task Force 1 is operating like things are business as usual, even with the Trump administration moving to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), according to John Morrison, a planning manager for the task force.
“We’ve just been told that we are remaining fully mission-capable, and the cooperative agreement that we have with the federal government has not been affected by the current administration priorities or cuts,” Morrison told FFXnow.
Since its founding in the 1980s, the task force sponsored by the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department has provided disaster response assistance both domestically and around the world.
Staffed with emergency planners, paramedics and more, the 200-member task force receives a set amount of federal funding for equipment and training to be ready in case of any potential call into service.
But when the task force is sent abroad — for example, to Turkey in response to a series of earthquakes in 2023 — the deployment itself, including salaries and equipment costs, is funded through USAID.
Though the task force was granted an exemption from President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order pausing foreign aid spending through the State Department and USAID, that status could potentially change at any time.
“We are bracing for other federal cuts that could impact this and other services in the county,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said.
The task force, which has sent full-team responses to seven different earthquakes in the past 15 years, wasn’t deployed to Myanmar after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the Asian country earlier this week.
Yesterday (Thursday), however, the task force headed to Tennessee to assist with search and rescue operations after storms slammed the central U.S. Domestic deployments are primarily funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including for last year’s tropical storms Debby and Helene.
“Ultimately, it’s up to the federal government to determine whether or not our team is the most appropriate resource to send,” Morrison said. “If whether we go on a mission or not is ultimately a federal choice, you’d have to ask them as to why we didn’t go on any one particular mission.”
Guidance for future operations of the task force, at least internationally, remains unclear. Though only Congress has the authority to officially shutter USAID, the Trump administration has said what remains of the agency will be absorbed by the U.S. State Department by July 1, with all operations ceasing by Sept. 2, according to multiple reports.
For now, though, Virginia Task Force 1 will continue to respond to emergencies when called.
“Right now, we expect Virginia Task Force 1 to continue its great international and domestic work,” McKay said.
Screenshot via Virginia Task Force 1/Facebook
