The administration of President Donald Trump has argued that it cannot meet an impending court-ordered deadline to release frozen foreign aid funds, despite a ruling mandating their distribution. The deadline was set for Wednesday at 11:59 PM Eastern Time (04:59 GMT Thursday) by US District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, DC, after he found that the Trump administration had failed to comply with an earlier order to release the funds.
However, late on Tuesday night, the administration’s lawyers appealed Judge Ali’s decision. In their filings, they requested that an appeals court pause the deadline while the legal process unfolds. They also submitted a statement from Pete Marocco, a Trump ally and deputy director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the foreign aid agency central to the case. Marocco testified that disbursing the payments could take “multiple weeks” and estimated that $2 billion would need to be paid. He attributed the delay to new Trump-era procedures aimed at aligning payments with the administration’s policy priorities.
Judge Ali had previously dismissed this argument, stating it was not a valid reason for withholding contract payments.
Upon beginning his second term on January 20, Trump announced a 90-day pause on foreign aid payments pending a review of assistance programs to ensure they aligned with US foreign policy. Trump has also sought to shut down USAID, accusing it of corruption and being run by “radical left lunatics,” though he provided no evidence to support these claims. This week, 1,600 USAID employees were fired, and most remaining staff were placed on leave. On Tuesday night, USAID employees were given just 15 minutes to clear out their offices.
The abrupt halt in foreign aid has left nonprofits, contractors, and other businesses in limbo, with no clear timeline for when payments might resume. Before the Trump administration, USAID distributed approximately $60 billion in aid annually. On February 13, Judge Ali had ordered the administration to temporarily lift the funding freeze to allow payments to nonprofits and contractors. However, he recently noted that Trump officials had “continued their blanket suspension of funds” and accused the administration of using the time to devise a “new, post-hoc rationalization” for the hold.
Nonprofits and businesses that previously worked with USAID warn that without payment, they may be forced to close. Allison Zieve, a lawyer representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Journalism Development Network, criticized the government’s actions, stating, “The lengths that the government is willing to go to flout a court order, all for the goal of ending life-saving humanitarian assistance, is staggering.”
In the lead-up to Tuesday’s deadline, Judge Ali pressed the administration’s lawyers on whether they had taken steps to comply with his initial order. He asked directly, “Are you aware of an unfreezing of the disbursement of funds for those contracts and agreements that were frozen before February 13? Are you aware of steps taken to actually release those funds?” Trump administration lawyer Indraneel Sur responded evasively, stating, “I’m not in a position to answer that.”
Critics argue that the administration’s Tuesday night appeal could set the stage for ignoring Judge Ali’s deadline entirely.
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