By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) -The largest U.S. government workers’ union and an association of foreign service workers sued the Trump administration on Thursday in an effort to reverse its aggressive dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. federal court 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. That was followed by orders from the State Department halting USAID projects around the world, agency computer systems going offline and staff abruptly laid off or placed on leave.
The lawsuit names Trump and the State and Treasury Departments as defendants. The White House and the departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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. On Monday, Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, that he and his employees “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
“Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization,” the lawsuit said. “And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency.”
The agency’s website now states that as of midnight on Friday “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 programs.”
The Trump administration plans to keep fewer than 300 employees, out of more than 10,000, sources told Reuters earlier on Thursday.
“The agency’s collapse has had disastrous humanitarian consequences,” Thursday’s lawsuit said, including shutting down efforts to fight malaria and HIV. “Already, 300 babies that would not have had HIV, now do. Thousands of girls and women will die from pregnancy and childbirth.”
Trump’s foreign aid freeze and the shutdown of USAID have also crippled global efforts to relieve hunger, leaving about 500,000 metric tons of food worth $340 million in limbo.
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.
It seeks a temporary and eventually permanent order from the court restoring USAID’s funding, reopening its offices and blocking further orders to dissolve it.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman)
