(Headline USA) U.S. Agency for International Development workers, some in tears, carted away belongings from a final visit to their now-closed headquarters Thursday as the Trump administration’s rapid-fire dismantling of the congressionally authorized agency moved into its final stages.
Notices are going out to terminate over 90% of USAID’s contracts for humanitarian and development work around the world, and the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a judge’s order requiring the administration to release billions of dollars in foreign aid.
The administration notified most USAID staffers in recent days that they were on leave or terminated, then gave thousands of those who worked in the Washington headquarters 15-minute time slots to clear out their desks.
With a backdrop of cheers from a few supporters outside, some staffers wept as they carried out grocery bags and suitcases with what was left from their life’s work.
USAID has been one of the biggest targets of a broad campaign by President Donald Trump and cost-costing chief Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to slash the size of the federal government. The actions at USAID have left only a small fraction of its employees on the job. The Trump administration has slashed $60 billion in assistance overseas.
Trump and Musk have called USAID programs out of line with the Republican president’s agenda and asserted that its work is wasteful.
Several groups are suing the Trump administration over the staff cuts and more than monthlong freeze on foreign assistance. While the administration’s efforts to slash the size of the federal government are embroiled in various lawsuits, court challenges to temporarily halt the shutdown of USAID have been unsuccessful.
Late Wednesday, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a judge’s order that had given the Trump administration a deadline of this week to release billions of dollars in foreign aid. Chief Justice John Roberts said that order will remain on hold until the high court has a chance to weigh in more fully.
The court’s late-night intervention is a temporary step as the justices consider the case, but their eventual determination could be pivotal in the increasingly fraught legal battles playing out nationwide.
It halted a decision from a federal judge who said this week that the administration had given no sign of complying with his nearly two-week-old order to pause the funding freeze. Trump paused foreign aid in an executive order on his first day in office.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
