USAID contractors join in suing Trump administration over dismantling of agency

12/2/2025 6:05

Organizations and companies that contract with USAID, including the American Bar Association and international development firm Chemonics, on Tuesday sued President Donald Trump's administration over what they called its unlawful moves to dismantle the U.S. foreign aid agency.



In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, the plaintiffs said Trump lacks the legal authority to shut down a federal agency established by Congress or to refuse to spend money that U.S. lawmakers allocated to it.



The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges to the administration's actions toward the U.S. Agency for International Development. It names Trump, the State Department and the Office of Management and Budget, which has issued a series of memoranda halting federal spending, as defendants and

seeks a court order reversing the cuts to the agency's funding and operations.



"Neither the president nor his subordinates have authority to thwart duly enacted statutes and substitute their own funding preferences for those Congress has expressed through legislation," the lawsuit said.