NGOs and government contractors have sued over the withholding of allocated grants
A US federal judge has given the administration of President Donald Trump less than two days to release billions of dollars in already approved foreign aid frozen last month, multiple media outlets have reported.
Trump froze most US foreign aid funding on his first day in office to have it reviewed for compliance with his “America first” goals. The move comes amid a broader crackdown on wasteful government spending.
District Judge Amir H. Ali first issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on February 13, demanding the Trump administration release the funds for loans and contracts that had been frozen by presidential order since last month. In a follow-up hearing last week, government lawyers argued that the administration was complying with the TRO, claiming it left them room to cancel and suspect contracts while they were reviewed.
In a telephone session on Tuesday, the judge alleged that the administration had shown no sign of complying with his TRO. Ali ruled that the Trump administration must pay out foreign aid funds to grant recipients and contractors by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday night, Reuters wrote on Tuesday.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which include NGOs and companies with government contracts, have argued that they have had to lay off employees, shut down programs and risk closing down entirely as a result of Trump’s aid freeze. The NGOs allege that the government has denied them tens of millions of dollars in funds from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington’s primary means of funneling funds towards political projects abroad.
USAID, which spends around $40 billion a year on foreign assistance, became one of the first targets for Trump’s government efficiency czar, Elon Musk, and the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency.
Both Trump and Musk have painted USAID as riddled with corruption and called for the agency to be dismantled.
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