A judge has instructed the government to release the foreign aid that has been frozen.
On February 25, federal officials informed a U.S. judge that adhering to his directive to release frozen foreign aid within two days was not feasible.
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali’s
directive, which set a deadline of February 26 at 11:59 p.m. ET, would require the disbursement of at least $1.5 billion across approximately 2,000 pending and newly established payment requests to the U.S. Agency for International Development, as stated by the agency’s deputy administrator,
Pete Marocco, in court documents.
Additionally, it would necessitate a payment of at least $400 million to settle outstanding payment requests to the State Department, Marocco noted.
“These payments cannot be completed within the court’s timeframe and would instead take several weeks,” he stated.
Earlier that Tuesday, during a hearing with government lawyers and counsel representing the plaintiffs who challenged the freeze, Ali learned that despite multiple
prior rulings, including one on February 13 mandating the Trump administration to unfreeze foreign assistance, the groups had yet to receive payment.
“I’m unsure why I cannot get a clear answer from you on this: Are you aware of any actions taken to unfreeze the disbursement of funds for the contracts and agreements that were frozen prior to February 13?” the judge from Washington asked Indraneel Sur, the government attorney, during the hearing. “Are you aware of any steps taken to actually release those funds?”
“I’m not able to answer that,” Sur replied.
This marks the second occasion a judge has determined that the Trump administration failed to adhere to a court order. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island also
ruled that the administration had not fully restored federal grants and loans within the United States after blocking expansive plans to pause trillions in government expenditures.
In the case in Washington, plaintiffs recently
submitted an emergency petition to enforce the judge’s temporary restraining order, asserting that they are still owed millions and that their contracts, which were halted under Trump’s foreign assistance freeze, remain terminated.
Ali granted the emergency request during Tuesday’s session and instructed the government to comply by Thursday.
Marocco’s declaration was accompanied by a government request asking the judge to pause his order while a federal appeals court reviews the case.
“Defendants are likely to succeed on appeal from the Court’s order for various reasons,” government attorneys stated in the filing. “To begin with, it is impossible for the Defendants to comply,” they argued, referencing Marocco’s declaration.
The government has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
