Judge gives Trump administration two days to release billions of dollars
in blocked foreign aid
[February 26, 2025]
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
WASHINGTON
(AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration less
than two days to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, saying
the administration had given no sign of complying with his nearly
two-week-old court order to ease its funding freeze. |
Retired United States Agency for International Development worker Julie
Hanson Swanson, left, join supporters of USAID workers outside the
USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian affairs office in Washington, Friday,
Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) |
|
The lawsuit was filed by nonprofit organizations over the cutoff
of foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International
Development and State Department, which followed a Jan. 20
executive order by President Donald Trump targeting what he
portrayed as wasteful programs that do not correspond to his
foreign policy goals.
Nonprofit groups and businesses that receive federal money for
work abroad said the freeze breaks federal law and has shut down
funding for even the most urgent life-saving programs abroad.
Those USAID and State partners say the administration has
stiffed them on hundreds of millions of dollars in money already
owed, forcing them to lay off tens of thousands of staffers and
pushing some organizations toward financial ruin.
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali on Feb. 13 had ordered the
administration at least temporarily to get funding flowing
again, including to make good on its bills. Despite the order,
USAID staffers and the businesses and nonprofit groups say they
know of no payments that have gotten through.
“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 Indraneel Sur, the lawyer for the
government. “Are you aware of steps taken to actually release
those funds?”
“I’m not in a position to answer that,” Sur said.
The case had been brought by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition
and the Global Health Council, representing health organizations
receiving U.S. funds for work abroad. They had asked Ali to find
the Trump administration in contempt of his earlier order.
It’s the second time a judge has found the Trump administration
did not follow a court order. U.S. District Court Judge John
McConnell in Rhode Island also found this month that the
administration had not fully unfrozen federal grants and loans
within the U.S., even after he blocked sweeping plans for a
pause on trillions of dollars in government spending.
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