The administration said potential delays were due to complicated payment systems that require multiple steps.
A federal judge has given the Trump administration until 6 p.m. on March 10 to pay some of the nearly $2 billion owed to foreign aid contractors and grant recipients of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) after it froze foreign aid for 90 days.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued the ruling following a March 6 hearing, siding with several contractors and non-profit grant recipients who have sued over the administration’s funding freeze, branding it unconstitutional.
The Global Health Council, Chemonics International, and the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition are among those who have filed the lawsuit against the federal government seeking payments of invoices for their previous work. They further claim the administration’s pause has halted the life-saving work of organizations across the globe.
Ali said he would issue a further order with more details on when USAID and the State Department must make further payments for past work, including to organizations that are not part of the lawsuit.
The judge’s decision was welcomed by Allison Zieve, director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, which is representing the groups in the lawsuit.
“We are hopeful that the judge will provide additional relief when he rules on the full scope of our preliminary injunction motion on Monday,” Zieve said in a statement.
Zieve added that during the four-hour hearing, the government “continued to insist that shutting down humanitarian assistance was both reasonable and lawful,” and “continued to take the position that the court has no authority to grant relief.”
Ali’s ruling came a day after the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s emergency appeal of an earlier order he issued in two lawsuits challenging Trump’s freeze on foreign aid.
On Feb. 13, Ali ordered the administration to temporarily restore funding for nonprofit organizations that rely on federal grants to provide foreign aid assistance after Trump’s freeze.In a separate ruling on Feb. 25, the judge gave the administration a deadline of Feb. 26 at 11:59 p.m. to unfreeze the foreign aid and accused it of failing to comply with his previous order. He also ordered the administration to pay all invoices and credit drawdown requests for work that was done before his initial order.
The Trump administration challenged Ali’s order, taking the issue to the Supreme Court, during which time the Feb. 26 deadline passed.
On March 6, the nation’s highest court affirmed Ali’s earlier ruling in a 5–4 emergency decision but stated that the judge “should clarify what obligations the government must fulfill” to ensure compliance with his order requiring the prompt release of funds for work already completed.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion and was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.
In a March 6 status report, the Trump administration said it anticipates that “all legitimate payments” owed to the plaintiffs in the case would be made within days, and not more than 10 days, but that foreign aid payments to other parties not in the lawsuit could take longer.
The administration said potential delays were due to complicated payment systems that require multiple steps.
It said that payments requested from the State Department would be paid within 14 days, and from USAID, within 30 to 45 days.
The administration added that it has paid out at least $87 million in foreign aid since Feb. 26 and that officials worked overnight to certify some “$70.3 million in additional payments” to the groups, which were expected to be released on March. 6.
The Epoch Times has contacted the White House and State Department for comment.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.