Judge orders Trump administration to pay bills from foreign aid contractors, comply with earlier ruling
Source: CBS News
February 25, 2025 / 2:07 PM EST
Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to comply with a temporary order preventing it from pausing foreign assistance funding issued earlier this month, and gave the State Department until Wednesday night to pay all bills for work completed before Feb. 13.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali granted a motion to enforce his temporary restraining order from Feb. 13. It required the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, to restore foreign-assistance funds for contracts and other awards while proceedings continue in a case brought by a group of businesses, nonprofits and organizations that do foreign aid work.
The contractors had argued that they have been cut off from federal dollars or forced to stop their work because of Mr. Trump's executive action — and a subsequent directive from Secretary of State Marco Rubio — that froze foreign development aid for 90 days.
Under Ali's ruling, the State Department and USAID must pay any invoices and drawdown requests owed before Feb. 13 by midnight Wednesday. Ali also ordered the government to turn over any internal directives from the State Department or USAID leadership telling employees to comply with the court's restraining order. At an emergency hearing Tuesday, a Justice Department lawyer was unable to provide specifics on what steps the Trump administration was taking to restore funding for foreign aid programs.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-usaid-state-department-foreign-assistance-funding-contractors-grants/
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