A temporary injunction halting mandatory administrative leave is expected to affect 2,200 USAID employees.
WASHINGTON—A federal judge said he will issue a temporary injunction halting mandatory administrative leave for 2,200 employees of the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID).
Judge Carl Nichols ordered that the USAID employees not be placed on leave at 11:59 p.m. Friday while legal challenges are pending.
The order will also halt the requirement that international employees return to the United States.
Nichols stated that it was a “very limited” restraining order. He said he will formally issue the order this evening.
The petition for the temporary restraining order was filed at noon on Feb. 7 and the government had no time to submit a brief. The judge characterized the case as an employer–employee dispute but found that some of the plaintiffs’ arguments about irreparable harm were valid.
The plaintiffs argued that employees would be harmed because they were locked out of payment systems and that being forced to leave in haste could disrupt services and cause destabilization in the overseas regions where USAID is active.
The plaintiffs also asked the judge to restore access to computer systems and payment systems and ensure that the funding freeze was lifted, but the judge did not grant that.
The plaintiffs had argued that Trump’s action exceeded his presidential authority, but Nichols held that it was a valid use of executive power granted under Article II of the Constitution.
The order was handed down shortly after the agency’s Washington offices in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center were stripped of exterior signage.
President Donald Trump placed a freeze on all foreign aid on his first day in office, Jan. 20. The agency’s website was taken offline on Feb. 1, amid speculation on the future of the agency.
The following day, Elon Musk, appointed by Trump to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, said Trump told him the federal agency should be closed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appointed by Trump as acting director of the agency, seemed to indicate that reorganization rather than closure was a possibility.
“This is not about getting rid of foreign aid,” Rubio said in a televised interview on Fox, adding that no decision had yet been made on what activities might be better done through the State Department and which might remain under a reformed USAID.
Democrats have called Trump’s action “illegal.” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), joined by 36 Democratic colleagues, wrote to Rubio on Feb. 4 asking for clarification on the action.
“Every Administration has the right to review and adjust ongoing assistance programming,” the senators wrote, “However, attempting to arbitrarily turn off core functions of a critical U.S. national security agency, without Congressional consideration or any metric-based review and absent legal authority to do so, is unprecedented and deeply disturbing.”
Rubio and other lawmakers have consistently drawn attention to problems within the agency, including that it had refused to make itself accountable to Congress and spent large sums without proper oversight, resulting in waste and corruption as well as allowing taxpayer dollars to fall into the hands of terrorist-controlled organizations.
The inspector general for USAID reported on Nov. 14 that a Syrian national had been charged with diverting $9 million in U.S.-funded aid to a terrorist organization affiliated with Al-Qaida.
The Office of Government Accountability reported in June 2023 that millions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health and USAID had found their way to institutions affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Washington insiders are more upset at DOGE for trying to stop wasteful spending than USAID for misusing tax dollars,” Sen. Joni Ernst told The Epoch Times.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the number of USAID employees affected by the temporary injunction. The Epoch Times regrets the error.