WASHINGTON: Federal workers associations filed suit late Thursday asking a federal court to stop the Trump administration’s “effective dismantling” of the lead US aid agency.
The lawsuit by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees comes as the new Trump administration and ally Elon Musk are targeting the US Agency for International Development for eradication, freezing its funds and placing almost all of its workers on leave or furlough.
The lawsuit says President Donald Trump lacks the authority to shut down an agency enshrined in congressional legislation. It asks the federal court in Washington to compel the reopening of USAID’s buildings, return its staffers to work and restore funding.
Earlier in the day, the Trump administration presented a plan to dramatically cut staffing worldwide for US aid projects as part of its dismantling of the USAID, leaving fewer than 300 workers out of thousands.
Two current USAID employees and one former senior USAID official told The Associated Press of the administration’s plan, presented to remaining senior officials of the agency Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity amid a Trump administration order barring USAID staffers from talking to anyone outside their agency.
The plan would leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of what are currently 8,000 direct-hires and contractors. They, along with an unknown number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run the few life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to keep going for the time being.
It was not immediately clear whether the reduction to 300 would be permanent or temporary, potentially allowing more workers to return after what the Trump administration says is a review of which aid and development programs it wants to resume.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a trip to the Dominican Republic that the US government will continue providing foreign aid.
“But it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest,” he told reporters.
The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who is running a budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have targeted USAID hardest so far in an unprecedented challenge of the federal government and many of its programs.
Since President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, a sweeping funding freeze has shut down most of the agency’s programs worldwide, and almost all of its workers have been placed on administrative leave or furloughed. Musk and Trump have spoken of eliminating USAID as an independent agency and moving surviving programs under the State Department.
Democratic lawmakers and others call the move illegal without congressional approval.
