Unions file lawsuit in Washington DC seeking to stop Trump from dissolving USAID
The lawsuit alleges that dissolving USAID, which was established as an independent agency in a 1998 law passed by Congress, is beyond Trump's authority.
Unions representing US government workers late Thursday sued President Donald Trump's administration over its efforts to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The USAID website said "all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programmes."
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Multiple news outlets reported that the Trump administration had laid out a plan to cut most of its global workforce which would leave fewer than 300 staffers.
The agency in charge of running life-saving programmes around the world has around 10,000 contractors and direct hires worldwide.
USAID's global role
In 2023, USAID disbursed $71.9 billion in foreign aid and its top recipients were Ukraine, followed by Ethiopia, Jordan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan, according to a Congressional report.
The amount the agency spent in fiscal 2023 works out to 1.2 per cent of that year's total federal outlays, which were more than $6.1 trillion.
The lawsuit was filed in Washington DC federal court by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Foreign Service Association.
The unions seek an order blocking what it says are "unconstitutional and illegal actions" that have "created a global humanitarian crisis."
Beyond Trump's authority
The lawsuit alleges that dissolving USAID, which was established as an independent agency in a 1998 law passed by Congress, is beyond Trump's authority under the Constitution and violates his duty to faithfully execute the nation's laws.
US President Donald Trump signed an order to pause- any new US foreign development assistance for three months on his first day in office but the specifics of that order are not defined.
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with recommending cuts to the federal budget, launched an assault on the aid agency over the weekend.
Since then, the agency's website has been shut down with just a simple message on its homepage highlighting that "all direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally."
Meanwhile, hundreds of contractors have been laid off and more than a thousand employees have been locked out of their accounts without notice.
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