A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for nonprofit organizations that rely on federal grants to provide foreign aid assistance.
“They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries,” it states. “It is the policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
Ali said that implementing the blanket suspension was likely “arbitrary and capricious” because it failed to consider the “immense reliance interests” of businesses and other organizations that had previously been awarded the aid.
The foreign aid funding freeze has led to nonprofit organizations shutting offices and terminating staff. Some shut down their business entirely, according to the ruling. Ali said the plaintiffs have presented evidence that the funding freeze could result in “a catastrophic effect” on humanitarian missions.
One of the nonprofit groups that worked with refugees and asylum seekers laid off 535 staff members and shut program offices due to the funding freeze, according to the court document.
“To be sure, there is nothing arbitrary and capricious about executive agencies conducting a review of programs,” the judge stated. “But there has been no explanation offered in the record, let alone a ‘satisfactory explanation ... including a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made,’ as to why reviewing programs—many longstanding and taking place pursuant to contractual terms—required an immediate and wholesale suspension of appropriated foreign aid.”
Ali said the nonprofit groups have made a “strong preliminary showing of irreparable harm” and their legal challenges were likely to prevail on the merits of their claim.
The judge granted the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Office of Management and Budget, and their agents from enforcing contract terminations or stop-work orders and suspending foreign aid grants that have been in place before Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20.
Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, president of the Global Health Council, which led the nonprofit organizations in filing the lawsuit, said that the ruling was “a vital step” toward restoring U.S. foreign assistance programs.
The president is calling for a review of those programs to determine whether they have “programmatic efficiency” and to see whether they are consistent with U.S. foreign policy, directing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to “enforce this pause.” The executive order also includes a waiver for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s office to waive any rules for certain programs.
Funding for certain foreign aid programs can be resumed before the 90-day period is up if an appropriate review is conducted and the OMB director or secretary of state’s office determines they should be continued, the executive order said.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the State Department for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
The nonprofit organizations argued that there have been difficulties in the waiver process.
“At the hearing, defendants pointed to the waiver process but did not rebut this evidence, acknowledging that the waiver process may have had ‘hiccups’,” the judge stated. “At this stage, the record before the Court does not suggest that the waiver process in place has mitigated the irreparable harms plaintiffs face.”
