The future of the government’s foreign auxiliary agency is in the balance after a federal court temporarilyThe Trump administration plan to place thousands of employees on Friday evening.
Trade unions representing federal employeestook the fightTo save the American Bureau for International Development (USAID) at the courts after the Ministry of Government Efficiencyt of Elon Musk (Doge)took a front hammerTo the agency, which the billionaire -technical director called a “ball of worms” he must “die”.
“The sudden dismantling by the administration of USAID, an agency that has done life -saving work around the world, without any notification to its thousands of employees or to the people who serves it is a profound moral spot,” Lauren Bateman, a lawyer at Public Citizen Litigation Group, which made the case on behalf of the trade unions alongside democracy, said reporters on Thursday evening.
But President Trump Op de Waarheid social Friday morning to double his efforts to dismantle the desk.
“Usaid drives the radical that is crazy, and there is nothing that they can do about it, because the way the money is spent, so much of it is fraudulent, completely inexplicable. Corruption has rarely been seen at levels. Close it! “Trump wrote.
Courts can decide the fate of USAID
Trump-appointed judge Carl Nichols said that on Friday evening he would give a “limited, very limited” order that temporarily pauses the plan.
“They should not place those 2,200 people on administrative leave tonight,” said Nichols during the hearing. More than 10,000 people worked for the Agency in 2023, of whom the internal research institute of the congress was placed in 2023 according to the Congress Research Service (CRS) in 2023.
Thelate nightPrepare the American Foreign Service Association and the US Federation of Government Employees by preventing the government from being placed on administrative leave on Friday at midnight and evacuating them from their host countries until February 14 at midnight.
For the 500 Some USAID employees who are currently on administrative leave, Nichols ordered that they must be restored to that date and have repaired “full access” to e-mail, payment and security reporting systems.
A provisional hearing is planned for 12 February.
Legal experts and democratic legislators have argued that this would beillegal and unconstitutionalFor the executive power to close a desk founded and funded by the congress.
The office was founded in 1961 and codified by the congress in 1998, according toAn analysis placed on Monday By the CRS.
Trump and his allies have justified their plan by claiming that the agency is full of fraud and corruption, pointing to millions of dollarsFor Poloo “Pro” subscriptionsand an alleged $ 47,000 in payment for a “transgender opera” in Colombia, that has been invalidatedDue to the non -profit newsroom notus.
“If you look at USAID, the whole thing is a fraud. Very little used. Every line I am looking at is corrupt or ridiculous, “Trump told reporters on Friday.
Thousands of USAID employees hold their breath
The drastic cuts and orders for employees abroad to return to the US Within 30 days have thrown thousands of lives in a state of uncertainty.
Womens submitted in addition to the court case, details the disruption that caused the sudden efforts to clean the house – and the possible consequences if the plan is implemented.
A USAID officer who is 32 weeks pregnantdescribed the “dangerous” stress and possible disruption of her birth plan. Another said that after 15 years as a foreign service provider, he and his two children would be effective if they are abruptly returned to the US
“In the very near future we will be back in the homeless of the United States, without a car, without a school district, without work, without a pension and without a health insurance policy. This experience is humiliating, dehumanizing and traumatized for my family, “the officer wrote.
Democrats Plot Long-Shot Wegende Solutions
Democratic legislators have the efforts of the Trump government to close the illegal, unconstitutional and coup of the office, promises to combat it in the congress, the courts and the press.
“They won the house of representatives. They won the Senate of the United States. They have majorities in the entire congress. But we are not powerless, ”said Senator Cory Booker (DN.J.) about Republicans during a Wednesday rally to support USAID outside the Capitol.
Booker also supported Senator Brian Schatz’s (D-Hawaii)blanket meets Trump’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs nominees until the administration her efforts to dismantle USAID, that rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) Just to dismantle, called a ‘coup’.
“It is a power grip that is meant to silence critics. And let’s be clear, although USAID might be the first, it won’t be the last, “said Jacobs during the Wednesday rally. “But jokes about them, because who knows better how to work in an authoritarian country than you all?”
Jacobs also said that she is planning to introduce a bill “to reduce the illegal acquisition of Elon Musk of USAID.”
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Aarz.) Just a moment to address his Republican colleagues.
“You can encourage this action by Trump and Musk, or maybe you are just afraid of Trump or Musk, but let’s be clear: they will circumvent you, and the American people will keep you responsible,” said Stanton.
“This does not stop until the public and members of the congress stand up on both sides of the aisle and Trump reminds us that we are coques of the government, and we have to restore checks and balances in this country.”
Republicans largely support Trump in the midst of Purge
Republican legislators have usually stopped or in line are behind Trump about the issue of the future of USAID.
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), President of the Foreign Committee of the House, was early to support the stripping of USAID of her independence.
During an interview last weekend at ‘Face the Nation’, Mast said that he ‘absolutely for – if the path we are going down – remove USAID as a separate department and under one of the other parts of the department of the United States dropping state because of its failure. “
The committee willkeep a hearingThis Thursday about the relocation of the Trump government to close the agency effectively and to freeze almost all foreign help.
Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman James Risch (R-Idaho) said on Monday in a statement that he “supports the efforts of the Trump government to reform and restructure the agency in a way that serves the American national security interests better.”
Assault comes as federal employees ‘buyouts’ weighs
The dismantling of USAID comes if the Trump government offers “deferred dismissal” about the federal workforce – and warns federal employees who refuse that offer can be the following.
The offer, called “a fork in the way”,promises employeesThat if they accept, they would retain the full salary and benefits without working until 30 September. But the offer isNot without riskIncluding the fact that the congress only financed the government until mid -March.
The White House said that 20,000 federal employees had accepted the offer from Tuesday. The offer originally went on Thursday, butA federal judge extendedThe deadline to the least Monday, when the court will weigh a separate legal challenge that is applied by the US Federation of Government employees.
White House Pers Secretary Karoline Leavitt thanked the judge “for extending the deadline, so that more federal employees who refuse to appear to the office can bring the administration on this very generous offer of once in a lifetime.”
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