A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from sending thousands of employees on paid leave. The decision, made on Friday by Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court in Washington, D.C., prohibits the US government from placing around 2,200 USAID employees on administrative leave or evacuating them from their host countries until February 14. The ruling also reinstates around 500 employees who had already been on leave.
According to the order, “all USAID employees currently on administrative leave will be reinstated by this date and will have full access to email, payment and security systems until this date and prior to this date, no further employees will be placed on administrative leave.” A request for a longer-term leave of absence is set to be reviewed at a hearing on Wednesday, the order states.
On Friday, Democracy Forward and the Public Citizen Litigation Group filed a lawsuit on behalf of two labor unions that represent federal employees, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Foreign Service Association, which represents thousands of federal employees working abroad for USAID.
US President Donald Trump had previously suspended all US foreign aid for a three-month review as part of a broader plan to significantly cut government spending. As a result, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has halted a number of USAID projects. Earlier this week, Trump claimed that the agency had invested billions of taxpayer dollars in media outlets to promote positive coverage of Democrats. Meanwhile, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency, has described USAID as a “criminal organization” and alleged that the agency funds bioweapons research.