The lawsuit seeks the restoration of USAID funding, the reopening of its offices, and the blocking of further orders to dissolve it.
Two labor groups representing employees from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sued the federal government on Thursday in an attempt to reverse its dismantling.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing U.S. government workers, and the American Foreign Service Association filed the
lawsuit in a federal court in Washington. The groups are seeking an order blocking what they claim are “unconstitutional and illegal actions” that have created a “global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors.”
President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are among the defendants.
On Monday, businessman Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),
said during a live session on social media platform X that USAID is “beyond repair.”
Musk
added in a post on X: “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has placed a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid and development funding pending reviews to align the agency with his America First policy.
USAID’s website
went offline over the weekend and hundreds of contractors have been laid off in recent days, a person familiar with the agency’s developments told The Epoch Times.
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 lawsuit seeks a temporary and eventually permanent order from the court restoring USAID’s funding, reopening its offices, and blocking further orders to dissolve it.
“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.”
President John F. Kennedy, in an executive order in 1961, established USAID as an independent agency to provide foreign assistance. Its available budget has ballooned to north of
$50 billion in recent years. It had more than 10,000 workers, in addition to contractors, as of fiscal year 2023. The workers are stationed across dozens of countries around the world.
The State Department, also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, stopped USAID projects around the world as staff were laid off and put on leave.
Rubio said during a trip to the Dominican Republic on Thursday that the federal government will continue providing foreign aid.
“But it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest,” he told reporters.
Trump
wrote in a post on the social media platform Truth Social that USAID used billions of dollars to fund propaganda, saying it could be the biggest scandal in history.
The White House on Monday published a
list of projects funded by USAID that it said were examples of waste and abuse. The projects included $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities,” $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia, and $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said on Feb.6 that he has
cosponsored a bill introduced by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) to abolish USAID.
The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Zachary Stieber, Aldgra Fredly, Lawrence Wilson, and Reuters contributed to this report.
