Judge orders Trump administration to speed payment of USAID and State
Dept. debts
[March 07, 2025]
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump
administration to speed up its payment on some of nearly $2 billion in
debts to partners of the U.S. Agency for International Development and
the State Department, giving it a Monday deadline to repay the nonprofit
groups and businesses in a lawsuit over the administration's abrupt
shutdown of foreign assistance funding.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali described the partial payment as a
“concrete” first step he wanted to see from the administration, which is
fighting multiple lawsuits seeking to roll back the administration's
dismantling of USAID and a six-week freeze on USAID funding, which has
forced U.S.-funded organizations to halt aid and development work around
the world and lay off workers.
Ali's line of questioning in a four-hour hearing Thursday suggested
skepticism of the Trump administration's argument that presidents have
wide authority to override congressional decisions on spending when it
comes to foreign policy.
It would be an “earth-shaking, country-shaking proposition to say that
appropriations are optional,” Ali said.
“The question I have for you is, where are you getting this from in the
constitutional document?" he asked a government lawyer, Indraneel Sur.
Thursday's order is in an ongoing case with more decisions coming on the
administration's termination of more than 90% of USAID contracts
worldwide this month.
Ali's ruling came a day after a divided Supreme Court rejected the Trump
administration’s bid to freeze funding that flowed through USAID. The
high court instructed Ali to clarify what the government must do to
comply with his earlier order requiring the quick release of funds for
work that had already been done.
The funding freeze stemmed from an executive order signed by President
Donald Trump on Jan. 20. The administration appealed after Ali issued a
temporary restraining order and set a deadline to release payment for
work already done.
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The administration said it has replaced a blanket spending freeze
with individualized determinations, which led to the cancellation of
5,800 USAID contracts — more than 90% of the agency's contracts for
projects — and 4,100 State Department grants totaling nearly $60
billion in aid.
“The funding freeze, it’s not continuing. It’s over,” Sur told the
judge Thursday.
With thousands of the form-letter contract terminations going out
within days earlier this month, nonprofits and businesses charge
that no actual individual contract reviews were possible, and that
the contract cancellations only made permanent most of the
across-the-board program shutdowns from the funding freeze.
The AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, the Global Health Council and
other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are seeking back payment for their
share of the nearly $2 billion they and other USAID partners were
already owed at the time of the Jan. 20 funding freeze.
Lawyers for the organizations told the court Thursday they also
wanted to see all of the contract terminations reversed, and future
terminations follow regulations.
The Trump administration said it recently resumed payment for USAID
debts after the funding freeze. But it told the court that its
processing of payments was being slowed because it had pulled most
USAID workers off their jobs, through forced leaves and firing, as
part of the agency shutdown.
Ali noted Thursday that USAID had said it routinely made thousands
of payments before the agency shutdown, and that it said it had
recently called 100 staffers off leave to process payments.
The administration could continue bringing idled workers off leave
to make Monday's deadline, he said.
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