A federal judge on Thursday temporarily extended his restraining order blocking the Trump Admin from placing USAID workers on leave.
Last week Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee said he will halt a midnight deadline for USAID to be reduced to couple hundred workers.
President Trump planned to drastically reduce the USAID workforce to a few hundred workers.
Thousand of workers were to be placed on administrative leave.
On Thursday Judge Nichols extended his restraining order until February 21.
Politico reported:
A federal judge is giving thousands of employees in the U.S. Agency for International Development another weeklong reprieve from being forced onto administrative leave or called home from overseas posts, but signaled that he may not order longer-term relief.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols extended until Feb. 21 an order he issued last week that blocked much of the Trump administration’s plan for massive changes to USAID. It further disrupts the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle a federal bureaucracy — in this case, one that handles billions of dollars in foreign aid — at lightning speed.
However, during a court hearing Thursday, Nichols repeatedly expressed skepticism about the court’s continued role in overseeing actions toward USAID employees in the U.S. The judge said there were other ways for the agency to address potential employment actions. He said the courts often address that sort of harm through financial damage awards rather than by trying to dictate specific agency actions.
“That harm gets addressed later,” said Nichols, a Trump appointee.
Nichols outlined two areas where he saw potential for the “imminent harm” that might prompt him to intervene: USAID employees in high-risk areas overseas and those abroad who might have significant expenses that the agency typically covers, such as utilities, rent or education expenses.
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