Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration less than two days to release billions of dollars in US foreign aid, saying the administration had shown no sign of complying with a nearly two-week-old court order to lift the funding freeze.
Nonprofit organizations filed the lawsuit over the suspension of foreign assistance from the United States Agency for International Development and the State Department, which followed President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order targeting what he described as wasteful programs that do not align with his foreign policy goals.
Nonprofit organizations and businesses that receive federal funds for work abroad claim that the freeze violates federal law and has cut off funding for even the most critical life-saving programs abroad. According to USAID and State partners, the administration has failed to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars, forcing them to lay off tens of thousands of employees and pushing some organizations into financial ruin.
On February 13, U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali ordered the administration, at least temporarily, to resume funding, including payment of bills. Despite the order, USAID staff, businesses, and nonprofit organizations say no payments have been received.
“I’m not sure why I can’t get a straight answer from you on this: Are you aware of an unfreezing of the disbursement of funds for those contracts and agreements that were frozen before Feb. 13,” the judge asked the government’s lawyer, Indraneel Sur. “Are you aware of steps taken to actually release those funds?”
“I’m not in a position to answer that,” Sur admitted.
The case was brought by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, which represent health organizations that receive US funding for work abroad. They had asked Ali to hold the Trump administration in contempt of his earlier order.
This is the second time a judge has found that the Trump administration failed to comply with a court order. This month, U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island determined that the administration had not fully unfrozen federal grants and loans within the United States, despite blocking sweeping plans to halt trillions of dollars in government spending.
