US President Donald Trump is viewing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, USA on February 4, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration has not fully complied with the court order to suspend the freezing of foreign aid grants and contracts.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali last week Order the government In order to allow the payment of US foreign aid, after hearing claims from federal contractors, challenged the executive order signed by President Donald Trump to almost all foreign aid.
Ali determined that the “blanket of foreign aid shrouded in Congress’ appropriation” caused irreparable harm to contractors and may not be allowed under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The government said earlier this week that the State Department and the U.S. International Development Agency have reviewed thousands of contracts and grants, which have been cancelled as part of the aid freeze and determined that “basically all termination” under the terms of the contract allow.
In response, Ali suggested Thursday that the government had suspended the freezing of funds rather than complying with his court orders, but instead looked for new ways to justify its cessation of massive aid.
“By prohibiting the defendants and their agents from executing any orders for such blanket suspension, the court did not invite the defendants to continue the suspension, while they reviewed the contract and legal authorities and proposed a new, post-just rationalization to achieve a lot of Pause,” Ali wrote.
The Trump administration has not provided evidence to dismiss the irreparable harm it would have caused to foreign aid blanket suspension, or it has completely considered the impact of the pause on the benefits that depend on aid.
“The court is ready to consider such arguments and evidence at the preliminary injunction stage,” Ali wrote. “However, within the extent that the defendants continue to be hung by blankets, they were ordered to stop immediately.”
The judges are unwilling to despise the government.
A White House spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
On the day Trump took office for the second time, Executive Order All “foreign development assistance” funds will be suspended for 90 days. The order directs all federal departments and agencies to immediately suspend new obligations and expenditures for assistance to foreign and non-governmental organizations.
Days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio is confirmed Order immediately Almost all foreign aid funded by the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development.
The foreign aid moratorium is not the first time in his second term, and the judge found that the Trump administration violated court orders. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Rhode Island Ruling that the Trump administration violated His order stopped a widespread federal funding freeze, which included pauses to foreign aid, as well as domestic grants and loans. The memo to suspend the suspension comes from the Office of Management and Budget, Abolished In late January.
