The flag of america Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) exterior its headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5, 2025.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Pictures
The biggest U.S. authorities staff’ union and an affiliation of overseas service staff sued the Trump administration on Thursday in an effort to reverse its aggressive dismantling of the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. federal court docket by the American Federation of Authorities Workers and the American International Service Affiliation, seeks an order blocking what it says are “unconstitutional and unlawful actions” which have created a “world humanitarian disaster.”
These actions embody President Donald Trump’s order on January 20, the day he was inaugurated, pausing all U.S. overseas support. That was adopted by orders from the State Division halting USAID tasks all over the world, company laptop techniques going offline and employees abruptly laid off or positioned on depart.
The lawsuit names Trump and the State and Treasury Departments as defendants. The White Home and the departments didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The gutting of the company has largely been overseen by businessman Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and an in depth Trump ally spearheading the president’s effort to shrink the federal forms. On Monday, Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, that he and his workers “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wooden chipper.”
“Not a single one among defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID had been taken pursuant to congressional authorization,” the lawsuit mentioned. “And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the one entity which will lawfully dismantle the company.”
The company’s web site now states that as of midnight on Friday “all USAID direct rent personnel will probably be positioned on administrative depart globally, except for designated personnel answerable for mission-critical features, core management and specifically designated applications.”
The Trump administration plans to maintain fewer than 300 workers, out of greater than 10,000, sources advised Reuters earlier on Thursday.
“The company’s collapse has had disastrous humanitarian penalties,” Thursday’s lawsuit mentioned, together with shutting down efforts to battle malaria and HIV. “Already, 300 infants that may not have had HIV, now do. Hundreds of women and girls will die from being pregnant and childbirth.”
Trump’s overseas support freeze and the shutdown of USAID have additionally crippled world efforts to alleviate starvation, leaving about 500,000 metric tons of meals price $340 million in limbo.
The lawsuit alleges that dissolving USAID, which was established as an unbiased company in a 1998 legislation handed by Congress, is past Trump’s authority underneath the Structure and violates his obligation to faithfully execute the nation’s legal guidelines.
It seeks a brief and finally everlasting order from the court docket restoring USAID’s funding, reopening its places of work and blocking additional orders to dissolve it.