Trump Admin Sued Over Plans To Place Thousands Of USAID Workers On Leave

Two government unions representing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers sued the Trump administration on Thursday, alleging that the overhaul of the agency is “unconstitutional and illegal.” 

The suit, filed by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees, accuses President Donald Trump of creating a global crisis through his actions to pause certain USAID programs. The suit comes after a post on the agency’s website on Tuesday announced that nearly all of its employees would be placed on leave as the administration evaluates how taxpayer dollars are being spent. 

“These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests,” said the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Trump reportedly plans to reduce staffing levels at the agency from the thousands to the hundreds.

In addition to Trump, the suit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as defendants. It accuses them of separation of powers and administrative procedure act violations. Rubio was named the acting director of USAID on Monday. 

“Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization. And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency,” the suit added. 

Under Trump, the State Department ordered a freeze on funding for foreign aid but allowed exceptions for “life-saving humanitarian assistance,” which included support for “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance.”

Elon Musk and his team at Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” program have been behind much of the efforts to gut USAID. Musk said on Monday that Trump had given him the go-ahead to start shutting down the agency due to its wasteful spending on ideological projects. 

Nearly all USAID employees will be placed on administrative leave starting Friday at 11:59 p.m. and have been asked to return to the U.S.

Exceptions will be made for “designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs,” according to the administration. 

Rubio said on Thursday that the U.S. would continue to provide foreign aid but would slash programs that don’t align with the national interest. 

“The goal of our endeavor has always been to identify programs that work and continue them,” he told reporters in the Dominican Republic. “And to identify programs that are not aligned with our national interest, identify those, and address them.” 

Rubio said the administrative leave action was taken because USAID employees had tried to evade transparency. 

“I’d have preferred not to do it this way,” he added. “When we tried to do it from the top down by getting cooperation from the central office and USAID, what we found instead are people trying to use the system to sneak through payments and push through payments despite the stop order. We found people that were uncooperative in terms of giving us information and access.”