A federal judge on Friday temporarily halted the Trump Administration’s plan to place USAID workers on leave. Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, stated he would pause a midnight deadline that would have reduced USAID’s workforce from over 5,000 employees to just a few hundred.
“A federal judge on Friday said he will pause a midnight deadline for the U.S. Agency for International Development to be stripped down to a few hundred workers from a workforce of more than 5,000.”
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols announced the decision from the bench following a hearing at a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C.
The American Foreign Service Association, a union representing 1,800 foreign service officers working for USAID, and the American Federation of Government Employees sued the Trump administration on Thursday. The lawsuit came after the administration announced earlier this week that thousands of USAID employees would be placed on administrative leave starting at 11:59 p.m. Friday. This move was part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to reshape the federal government.
