A federal judge moved on Thursday to extend by one week a temporary restriction that prevents the Trump administration from implementing Plans that will disintegrate The American Agency for International Development.
The matter, which Judge Karl Nichols of the US Provincial Court of Colombia said he will continue later on Thursday, and continue the situation. directing This would put a quarter of its employees In administrative leave While forced those who were deployed abroad to return to the United States within 30 days.
Judge Nichols said that he would be sentenced to the end of next week about whether the prosecutor’s request to issue a preliminary judicial order would prevent the main elements indefinitely for the Trump administration’s prominent efforts.
The plan was largely driven by Elon Musk, a billionaire businessman for technology timed in the federal budget, to close the agency Ho and Mr. Trump. Trump’s direction will affect about 2,700 direct appointments from the United States Agency for International Development, including hundreds of external service officers.
The lawsuit was filed by two Niqam representing the employees affected by the United States Agency for International Development: the American Foreign Service Association, to which relief workers in global missions, and the American Union of Government Employees, which represents other direct appointments. They have argued that President Trump’s executive order is freezing abroad for 90 days and the subsequent directives to dismantle some of the US Agency for International Development and Reduce employees were not constitutional, and they asked the court to cancel them.
Democratic lawmakers, American Agency for International Development, and American Foreign Assist He criticized any moves to close the agency by one side Its role was also created in the federal government, as established by the law, and it was funded, such as the rest of the government, until March 14.
During a hearing on Thursday, Judge Nichols pressed Carla Gilbrid, the lawyer for the prosecutors, about the reason for the existence of an administrative leave that could cause irreplaceable damage to employees.
Ms. Gilbridi also asked about a series of questions about the reason why unions and employees who represent them first were not requested through arbitration operations in force for the federal work force – an argument that the Ministry of Justice presented in its responses to the case.
Ms. Gilbridi said that if employees are in an arbitration process, there may not be the United States Agency for the remaining International Development to employ them by the time when their issues were considered.
“This court is the only forum that can address these damage on the time scope that requires this urgent situation,” she said, noting that the relevant administrative operations are designed to deal with the grievances of individual employees, and not an entire federal agency on the edge of melting.
Whether the federal employee unions can suffer from the direct harm necessary to file a lawsuit – a concept known as standing – has become an issue in another case against the Trump administration.
Unions, including the American Union of Government Employees, defied an offer to push federal workers during September if they agreed to resign. The judge in this case, George A. Utol of the US boycott court for Massachusetts Province, Judgment on Wednesday The unions did not have a place to prosecute because they were not directly affected by the offer.
Judge Autol also indicated that Congress has created administrative operations to raise the type of claims in the case.
Eric Hamilton, the lawyer for the Ministry of Justice, has made a similar argument about the employees of the United States Agency for International Development on Thursday, noting that there are administrative operations to settle labor disputes involving the federal workforce.
“Certainly we do not believe that the unions coming to the provincial court are the correct form of litigation,” he said.
But these administrative operations may take years, and Mr. Trump has also targeted. On Monday, it is The Chair of the Warmwarry Protection Council launchedWho hears release calls and other disciplinary procedures against federal employees.
On Thursday, Ms. Gilbridi presented a series of arguments about the uncertainty and risk facing workers abroad and in the bureaucratic forgetfulness, some of whom presented testimonies about the physical and struggling danger to obtain security guidelines because they were unable to reach their accounts to receive official contacts. These included many officers who were deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who described how they were left to determine whether and how to flee Kinshasa amid the protests, where the demonstrators approached their homes, and in one case, all the property of one officer looted.
Ms. Gilbridi said that they and the rest of the foreign service officers at the United States Agency for International Development “were forced under the pressure of the maximum time” to choose whether they would occupy their families and return to the United States, with an understanding that the Trump administration will not extend to the help of the transition to those who resisted leaving the schedule The United States Government.
The political appointed of Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk, who was described by the White House as a “private government employee”, aims to reduce most of the annual foreign aid funds that are allocated through the states and legislation of Congress about $ 70 billion. About $ 40 billion of this amount is transferred through the United States Agency for International Development, which represents Less than 1 percent of the annual federal budget.
Mr. Hamilton defended the planned cuts to the agency’s workforce as it falls within the jurisdiction of Mr. Trump. He admitted that the unique employees to face safety in high -risk sites faced Judge Nichols that the administration was taking steps to protect them.
Judge Nichols said: “You can understand, I’m sure, why don’t I want to be in the position of government employees abroad because they are placed on an administrative leave,” said Judge Nichols.
“We share concern about the security of the US Agency for International Development,” said Mr. Hamilton.
Pressure by the judge to detail these additional measures, Mr. Hamilton said he did not know what they are.
Judge Nichols ordered him to provide the court with details about safety measures. Mr. Hamilton also asked the court information about what it means to put the administrative leave for other benefits that come with the job of an employee abroad, such as diplomatic housing and academic fees.
The government said that the employees on an administrative leave will continue to pay, but the Foreign Service employees at the United States Agency for International Development expect that they will lose many additional advantages granted to those working worldwide if they are forced to return to the United States. For an officer where there is no home base in the United States, the loss of these benefits may force the decrease in savings to keep a roof over his head.
It is also not clear how long the employees will remain on the administrative leave in this situation.
Trump administration attorneys said that officials decided only 611 of about 10,000 workers at the United States Agency for International Development were “very necessary” so that they could not be placed on or terminated administrative leave. And they defended the radical discounts in the argument in the court documents that “the president’s powers in the world of foreign affairs are wide and cannot be reviewed in general.”
The lawsuit is one of the many seeking to overcome the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict foreign aid, which not only affects.
Another case hanging before the US District Court of Colombia, It was brought by a group of contractors NGOs that have lost funding, asking the court to order the administration to re -disburse the foreign aid funds and stop the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development
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