A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to pay at least a portion of the nearly $2 billion in owed foreign aid for previously completed projects by 6 p.m. Monday, an expeditious ruling that comes just one day after the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s request to continue its freeze.
The decision from U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali came after a more than four-hour court hearing Thursday, where he grilled both parties on their proposed repayment plans, and a timeframe for the government to comply with the $1.9 billion in owed foreign aid that has been completed.
At the end of the hearing, Judge Ali ordered the government to pay at least a portion of the $1.9 billion by Monday at 6 p.m.
“I think it’s reasonable to get the plaintiffs’ invoices paid by 6 p.m. on Monday,” said Judge Ali. “What I’ll order today is the first concrete step that plaintiffs have their invoices paid … [and] work completed prior to Feb. 13 to be paid by 6 p.m. on Monday, March 10th.”
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That order previously set a deadline of Feb. 26 at 11:59 p.m. for the administration to pay its outstanding debt to foreign aid groups.
The Justice Department had argued that the timeline was “impossible” to comply with.
But Judge Ali seemed to reject that notion Thursday. After a Justice Department attorney asked the court for more time to get the latest payments out, pointing out that it may be difficult to get financial transactions done over the weekend, he responded by noting that the government had successfully paid out more than $70 million during the hours of Wednesday through early Thursday morning, so this should be possible as well.
The 5-4 Supreme Court decision remanded the case back to the D.C. federal court – and Judge Ali — to hash out the specifics of what must be paid, and when.
Judge Ali moved quickly following the high court’s decision, ordering both parties back to court Thursday to weigh plausible repayment schedules.
The proposed schedules, his order noted, “should account for the length of time that has passed since the TRO, [temporary restraining order] was entered and the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”
At issue in the case was how quickly the Trump administration needed to pay the nearly $2 billion owed to aid groups and contractors for completed projects funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), at a time when the administration has issued a blanket freeze on all foreign spending in the name of government “efficiency” and eliminating waste.
Plaintiffs have argued that the lower court judge had ordered the Trump administration to begin making the owed foreign aid payments more than two weeks ago — a deadline they said the government simply failed to meet, or to even take steps to meet — indicating that the administration had no plans to make good on fulfilling that request.
This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for updates.
