Members of Congress were blocked on Monday from entering the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which shuttered its doors on the orders of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. The lawmakers tell The New York Sun that they expect swift legal action to reopen the agency. 

More than a dozen members of the House and Senate gathered on a sidewalk on Monday afternoon to decry the closure of the agency, which is housed on 14th Street in the Ronald Reagan Building just a few hundred feet from the White House. 

“This is a Constitutional crisis that we are in today,” Senator Murphy said, insisting that abolishing USAID would require an act of Congress. “If Trump gets away with the unconstitutional shuttering of USAID, then they are going to shutter other federal agencies.”

Those who want to see the agency dismantled have pointed to the fact that it was created via executive order by President Kennedy in 1961 after Congress mandated the creation of an independent agency to manage foreign aid, thus giving President Trump the ability to dissolve it unilaterally. Supporters of the agency, however, highlight a law signed by President Clinton in 1998 that ratified the organization as an independent agency and say the president needs congressional authority to close it down or otherwise alter its structure.  

After the lawmakers spoke to the crowd, they tried to make their way inside the building, where they were held at the door of USAID while a police officer went to check if they were even allowed inside. 

After about 15 minutes, a staff member at USAID came out and told them that they would not be granted access. The staff member did not identify himself when asked who he was. He also declined to comment when Senator Van Hollen asked him if any DOGE staffers were presently inside the building. 

The USAID offices were closed on Monday morning, and all employees were told they had to work remotely.

Those lawmakers who attended the protest Monday — almost entirely from Virginia and Maryland, home to many federal employees — said they expect legal action by employees and non-governmental organizations impacted by the funding freeze. 

“I’m sure legal action is coming because it’s illegal,” the chairman of the Rules Committee, Congressman Jim McGovern, tells the Sun. “It’d be nice if the Republican Speaker grew some balls.”

“We’re working with attorneys as we speak to make sure that this illegal action is stopped,” Mr. Van Hollen told reporters after he was denied entry to the agency. 

Democrats are already striking back at Mr. Trump’s own nominees until he rescinds his decision to try and abolish or move USAID to the State Department. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Senator Schatz, who was at the Monday protest, had placed a hold on all State Department nominees in response to the USAID move. 

Speaking to reporters while in Central America for his first foreign trip, Secretary Rubio announced that he had taken the reins as acting administrator of the agency. “My frustration with USAID goes back to my time in Congress — a completely unresponsive agency,” the Secretary of State said. 

The peril for USAID employees and contractors abroad became apparent on Monday when a panic button phone application used by those overseas reportedly went dark. According to Fox News, employees of USAID and contractor organizations were shown an error message when trying to log in to the app, Scry Panic, which is used by those overseas to report terror attacks or kidnappings.