Government workers sue to stop Trump from dismantling USAID
WASHINGTON − Groups representing foreign aid workers are suing the Trump administration to try to stop the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development, calling what’s happening to the humanitarian agency an “unlawful seizure.”
“It’s a genuine moral crisis,” said Lauren Batemen, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group which is helping represent the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Foreign Service Association.
The suit, filed in Washington, D.C. federal court on Thursday, says the administration’s stop work orders, funding freeze and staff reductions are costing thousands of jobs, threatening U.S. national security interests and causing a humanitarian catastrophe.
President Donald Trump has accused the agency of being corrupt by spending money on projects the White House has called ridiculous.
About 10,000 USAID employees were told this week that they will be placed on administrative leave at the end of Friday.
The only exception is for designated personnel responsible for “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.”
Fewer than 300 will remain.
About two-thirds of USAID employees work overseas across 60 countries.
Bringing the employees home could cost more than $20 million, said Randy Chester, president of the American Foreign Service Association.
“Kids will be pulled from schools. Spouses are losing jobs, and families are thrown into uncertainty with no clear plan,” Chester said, “not to mention the cost to American taxpayers of this sudden, disorganized, chaotic departure.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters this week that the administration would have preferred to handle its review of USAID in a “more orderly fashion.”
“But we had no cooperation, and in fact insubordination, and so it required us to work from the bottom up,” he said.
The suit claims that under current law, only Congress can dismantle USAID.
But Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the internal structure of USAID is not set in statute.
“And that also would extend to who the employees are and how many employees are there,” he said. “So if (Trump) wants to turn it into a hollow shell . . . he can do that.”
Any structural changes to USAID are supposed to be done in consultation with Congress, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Scott R. Anderson, a former U.S. diplomat and government attorney now at the Brookings Institution, said the administration took steps this week to try to satisfy that requirement by notifying Congress that it intended to work with lawmakers on a reorganization.
“If it’s actually abided by it in good faith, they may be on better legal grounds,” he said. “It still could be a a disaster from a policy perspective.”
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