By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday declined to block the Trump administration from putting more than 2,000 U.S. Agency for International Development workers on leave, a setback for government employee unions suing over what they have called an effort to dismantle the foreign aid agency.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington said the unions had not shown that their members would be put in danger by being placed on leave. He also said that federal law required employees to go through an administrative dispute process before suing in federal court.
The lawsuit is one of several brought over aggressive cuts to U.S. foreign aid funding and operations following President Donald Trump’s January 20 executive order pausing all foreign aid for 90 days.
It comes a day after a different judge for the second time ordered USAID and the U.S. State Department, which also administers foreign aid, to resume payments on frozen contracts and grants.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Nia Williams)
