The Supreme Court on Feb. 26 temporarily paused a federal judge’s order giving the Trump administration until midnight to resume $2 billion in foreign aid payments.
The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court Wednesday night asking the court to halt the midnight deadline until the motion is resolved.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the order will remain on hold until the Supreme Court weighs in more fully on the matter.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary restraining order earlier this month directing both USAID and the State Department to restore funding for contracts that predated Jan. 20 but were frozen by the Trump administration.
The plaintiffs challenging the freeze told the judge that the government was slow in fulfilling the order, leading Ali to order the payments to resume by midnight on Wednesday.
In the motion, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote that the court’s 11:59 p.m. “30-some-hour deadline thus moved all the goalposts.”
“It is not tailored to any actual payment deadlines associated with respondents’ invoices or drawn-down requests, or anyone else’s. And it has thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos,” Harris wrote.
She asked the Supreme Court for an immediate ruling halting the midnight deadline until the court can resolve the motion. Harris said the government couldn’t feasibly resume payments within the window of time given.
“Worse, this order exposes the government to the risk of contempt proceedings and other sanctions,” she said.
President Donald Trump has moved to pause foreign aid payments amid efforts to reform USAID, which has resulted in numerous lawsuits filed by affected groups.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration said it was eliminating more than 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in federal assistance worldwide. Few contracts of U.S. development and foreign humanitarian aid would remain following the cuts.
According to a memo detailing the plans, officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift.” The administration will announce more changes in how the State Department and USAID deliver foreign assistance, it said.
On inauguration day, Trump ordered what was described as a 90-day program-by-program review to determine which foreign aid programs should be preserved by an administration that is prioritizing “America First” objectives, while freezing foreign assistance nearly overnight.
The majority of USAID’s staff have been put on leave or fired.
