A federal judge on Thursday evening temporarily blocked President Trump from cancelling foreign aid contracts.
President Trump last month froze US foreign aid for 90 days.
Last month, after Trump’s executive order to halt foreign aid grants, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued new guidance to temporarily pause spending on most foreign aid for 3 months.
Marco Rubio said the State Department will issue waivers on a case by case basis.
Non-profit groups sued to have their funds restored.
US District Judge for the District Court of Columbia, Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, said Trump’s order halting foreign funding has caused enormous harm.
“At least to date, Defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs,” Judge Ali wrote in a 15-page order reviewed by The Gateway Pundit.
Excerpt from Politico:
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for hundreds of foreign aid contractors who say they’ve been devastated by President Donald Trump’s abrupt — and in their view illegal — 90-day blanket freeze.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, a Washington, D.C.-based appointee of President Joe Biden, said the Trump administration failed to account for the extraordinary harm caused by the broad-based halt to foreign aid.
Ali barred Trump’s top State Department and budget aides — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought — from implementing any contract cancelations or stop-work orders put into effect after Trump’s inauguration, at least while further litigation plays out.
The ruling effectively halts a central component of one of Trump’s Day One executive orders commanding his administration to freeze foreign aid for 90 days.
