Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File).
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have taken “a series of unconstitutional and illegal actions” with recent measures that have “systematically dismantled” the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by freezing funding for foreign assistance and laying off or furloughing thousands of employees, according to a new lawsuit.
The suit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday by a pair of labor unions, seeks to have a judge order the Trump administration to reverse its “unlawful actions” and prohibit it from taking additional steps to dissolve the agency without congressional authorization.
“President Trump’s actions to dissolve USAID exceed presidential authority and usurp legislative authority conferred upon Congress by the Constitution, in violation of the separation of powers,” the suit states. “These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests.”
According to the 30-page complaint, the allegedly illegal actions began the first day Trump took office, when he made good on a campaign promise by issuing an executive order directing a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance for a purported efficiency assessment and to ensure funding was consistent with U.S. foreign policy. Rubio continued the administration’s destruction of the agency by directing the immediate issuance of stop-work orders on foreign assistance awards.
“Shortly after assistance funding was frozen, over one thousand USAID institutional support contractors — and thousands more employees of USAID contractors or grantees — were laid off or furloughed,” the complaint states. “The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic. USAID provides life-saving food, medicine, and support to hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Without agency partners to implement this mission, U.S.-led medical clinics, soup kitchens, refugee assistance programs, and countless other programs shuddered to an immediate halt.”
