WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to pull thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development staffers off the job in the United States and around the world.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols declined to keep in place his temporary block on the effort to remove all but a small fraction of USAID staffers from their posts, as part of an administration plan that would also give those abroad a 30-day deadline to move back to the U.S. at government expense.
His ruling comes in a broad lawsuit filed by unions on behalf of workers, especially those at risk of being stranded abroad. The suit describes the Trump administration stalling needed medical evacuations for USAID staffers and spouses overseas, cutting some contractors off from emergency communications, and leaving staffers to flee political violence in Congo without support or funding.
The lawsuit more broadly challenges the constitutionality of the administration attacks on USAID, saying eliminating an agency would require congressional approval.
“At present, the agency is still standing," Nichols wrote in his ruling. “And so the alleged injuries on which plaintiffs rely in seeking injunctive relief flow essentially from their members’ existing employment relationships with USAID.”
Nichols found that the unions’ challenge must be dealt with under federal employment laws rather than in district court.
President Donald Trump and the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency tied to billionaire Elon Musk have moved swiftly to shutter USAID, asserting without evidence that its work is wasteful and out of line with the president’s agenda.
Multiple lawsuits from groups representing USAID workers and nonprofits and businesses are challenging the job cuts and the sudden shutdown of the agency overall, as well as a freeze on foreign assistance. Another court order has temporarily blocked the halt to funding.
Nichols said he had been “very concerned” about workers in high-risk areas left overseas without access to emergency communications. But has since been reassured by the Trump administration that they would still have access to two-way radios that allow 24-7 communications in emergencies, as well as a phone app with a “panic button.”
He said the government’s statements persuaded him "that the risk posed to USAID employees who are placed on administrative leave while stationed abroad — if there is any — is far more minimal than it initially appeared.”
Pregnant women fear over their care
The Trump administration has stalled medical evacuations for as many as 25 USAID staffers and spouses in the later stages of high-risk pregnancies overseas, according to testimony in lawsuits and a person familiar with the cases. The person was not authorized to speak publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
USAID “will undertake all measures as appropriate to ensure the safety and security of current employees,” deputy administrator Pete Marocco said in a court filing Thursday.
The administration says it is taking all required care of staffers as it terminates USAID programs and aims to recall thousands of workers and their families abroad.
The American women and their spouses, however, say they have been left in substandard medical care in posts in unstable countries, fearing for their lives.
“Everyone says I need to wait and see what happens” with Trump administration decisions, a USAID staffer, whose pregnancy is complicated by high-blood pressure, said in a court filing from her posting in an undisclosed country in Africa.
The woman's affidavit and others from staffers were filed with courts anonymously because of repeated warnings from the Trump administration that USAID staffers risk dismissal if they speak publicly.
“I have a due date that does not allow me to just wait and see what happens,” the USAID staffer wrote. “If I cannot medevac as planned, I will be in a life-threatening situation.”
In another case, a pregnant spouse of a USAID worker was left hemorrhaging in a foreign hospital bed to await delivery, her husband said in another affidavit. The intervention of a U.S. senator, who was not identified in the the affidavit, secured the government's agreement to pay for a medical evacuation. But doctors say the approval came too late in her pregnancy for her to safely take a long series of flights back to the U.S., even with medical escort.
The State Department did not respond to requests for comment on workers’ allegations that the government was stalling or refusing medical evacuations.
Workers facing other uncertainty abroad
In lifting his order temporarily blocking the Trump administration order that would put thousands of USAID staffers on leave, Nichols allowed the administration to start the clock on a 30-day deadline for USAID workers abroad to travel home at government expense.
Lawyers for employee groups presented Nichols with accounts saying that the Trump administration had left workers without direction or funding when political violence in Congo forced their evacuation.
USAID officials paid for two meals and offered the evacuated Congo-based employees an opportunity to look at boxes of donated clothing once they arrived in Washington, said the staffers, who were not identified in court documents.
Administration officials otherwise have left the evacuated staffers to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in uncompensated hotel bills, with no guidance on whether they should stay in Washington, go elsewhere or whether they still will have a job, the lawsuit charges.
USAID workers still overseas describe their lives as in chaos and lacking guidance from the government, including USAID failing to pay electricity bills.
Staffers told the courts in written testimony that they fear being left without time or the means to sell their homes or pay off angry landlords owed money.
Lifesaving programs still offline
Current and former USAID officials say the funding freeze and staff reductions have kept even lifesaving programs worldwide offline despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio granting waivers.
That includes programs such as a two-decade-old AIDS and HIV program — called the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR — credited with saving more than 20 million lives in Africa as well as a disease-outbreak response that normally would be trying to prevent further spread of recent Ebola cases in Uganda, according to two officials for those programs.
Staffing cuts also have reduced some of the U.S. disaster-response teams for earthquakes and other global crises, said a former senior USAID official with direct knowledge of the situation.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
While Rubio and others say waivers are allowing programs including PEPFAR to continue — and warned USAID staffers in a recent memo against saying otherwise — agency staffers and federal judges have found that no funding is getting through to allow that to happen.
USAID's payment system was disabled earlier in the shutdown, and it remains nonfunctioning, according to USAID staffers and filings.
Ellen Knickmeyer And Lindsay Whitehurst, The Associated Press
