USAID will place thousands on administrative leave after judge lifts block on Trump administration’s plan

All U.S. Agency for International Development direct hires deemed non-essential will be placed on administrative leave at 11:59 p.m. ET Sunday, according to an email sent from the Office of the Administrator and reviewed by CBS News. 

Those being placed on leave — an estimated 4,200 staffers — would be notified by 5 p.m. Sunday, the email said. USAID is also resuming “voluntary Agency-funded return travel” for impacted employees overseas, according to the email.

USAID employs more than 10,000 people, according to the Congressional Research Service, with around 4,800 direct hires stationed in foreign and domestic posts.

Per the email, approximately 2,000 personnel in duty stations across the U.S. will also be subject to a reduction in force. 

USAID had previously deemed 611 workers as essential amid an initial attempt earlier this month to place the majority of direct hires on leave. But a judge, in response to a lawsuit brought by two unions representing USAID employees, had ordered the agency to temporarily reinstate some 2,100 personnel who had previously been placed on leave while blocking the administration from placing another 2,000 or so on leave. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by President Trump, also put a stay on orders for overseas personnel to return home.

However, Nichols on Friday chose not to extend the temporary stay.

In a 26-page decision, Nichols said the potential harm asserted by the unions did not warrant emergency relief.

“Plaintiffs have presented no irreparable harm they or their members are imminently likely to suffer from the hypothetical future dissolution of USAID,” Nichols wrote, adding that those placed on leave still have the ability to go through the standard process of bringing their concerns before the government body for employee complaints.

While the lift on the stay allows the Trump administration to place USAID workers on leave, a ruling in a separate lawsuit brought by a group of nonprofit organizations and contractors that received funding for foreign aid projects is still preventing the administration from pausing foreign aid, grants and contracts previously appropriated by Congress while legal proceedings continue.

USAID is also establishing a “Coordination Support Team” made up of several working groups to “reduce uncertainty for our employees and to find solutions to logistical issues facing personnel and programs,” according to an email obtained by CBS News.

The working groups, co-lead by USAID Acting Chief of Staff Joel Borkert and Marcus Thornton, a member of the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff, are focused on facilitating safe returns for USAID personnel overseas and their families, maintaining operations for life-saving humanitarian assistance and other programs that have received waivers, and “addressing logistical challenges,” the email said.

Established in 1961, USAID was one of the first agencies Mr. Trump and Elon Musk — who is classified as a special government employee, but who the White House has claimed in a court filing has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions” and is not an employee of the White House’s Department Government Efficiency, or DOGE — in their efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.

According to three U.S. officials, Mr. Trump plans to merge USAID into the State Department and severely reduce its staff and budget.

Melissa Quinn and

Jacob Rosen

contributed to this report.

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