Washington – The Trump administration presented a plan on Thursday to drastically reduce staff worldwide for American help projects as part of its dismantling of the United States Agency for International DevelopmentLeaving less than 300 workers from thousands.
On Thursday night, federal workers associations filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to stop the closure, arguing that the president Donald Trump It lacks the authority to close an agency enshrined in the legislation of Congress.
Two current USAID employees and a former Usaid official told The Associated Press of the Administration Plan, presented to the senior officials of the agency’s remaining agency on Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to an order of the Trump administration that prohibits USAID employees from talking to anyone outside their agency.
The plan would leave less than 300 employees at work of what are currently 8,000 contracts and direct contractors. They, together with an unknown number of 5,000 international employees hired locally abroad, would execute the few programs that save the life that administration says it intends to continue for time.
It was not clear immediately if the reduction to 300 would be permanent or temporary, which could allow more workers to return after what the Trump administration says it is a review of the help and development programs that it wants to resume.
The administration earlier this week gave almost all USAID employees registered 30 days abroad, starting Friday, to return to the US, with the government paying their travel and move costs. The workers who choose to stay longer, unless they receive an exemption from specific difficulties, could have to cover their own expenses, said a warning on the USAID website on Thursday night.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio He said during A trip to the Dominican Republic On Thursday, the United States government will continue to provide foreign aid.
“But it will be foreign help that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest,” he told reporters.
The Trump administration and the ally billionaire ELON ALMIZCLEThat executes a budget reduction government department, has been addressed to Usaid harder so far in an unprecedented challenge of the federal government and many of its programs.
Since the opening of January 20, Trump, a radical financing freezing has closed most of the agency’s programs worldwide, and almost all its workers have been placed on administrative license or license. Musk and Trump have talked about eliminating USAID as an independent agency and moving surviving programs under the State Department.
Democratic legislators and others call illegal measure without the approval of Congress.
The same argument was made by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government employees in their law Restore funds.
Government officials “did not recognize the catastrophic consequences of their actions, both in terms of US workers, the lives of millions worldwide and the national interests of the United States,” says demand.
___
The diplomatic writer AP Matthew Lee contributed from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
By
