By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A U.S. judge will consider on Friday whether to temporarily block the Trump administration from dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and carrying out plans to put thousands of its workers globally on administrative leave at midnight.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington scheduled a 3 p.m. Eastern time (2000 GMT) hearing in a lawsuit filed on Thursday by the largest U.S. government workers’ union and an association of foreign service workers.
The lawsuit by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Foreign Service Association seeks an order blocking what it says are “unconstitutional and illegal actions” that have created a “global humanitarian crisis.”
Those actions include President Donald Trump’s order on January 20, the day he was inaugurated, pausing all U.S. foreign aid. Following Trump order, the State Department halted USAID projects around the world, agency computer systems went offline and staff were abruptly laid off or placed on leave.
The administration in a notice sent to the foreign aid agency’s workers on Thursday said it will keep 611 essential workers on board at USAID out of a worldwide workforce that totals more than 10,000.
The gutting of the agency has largely been overseen by businessman Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close Trump ally spearheading the president’s effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Deepa Babington)
