Us Judge Temporarily Lifts Funding Freeze On Aid Programmes

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A sign and a wreath lay near the entrance of the US Agency for International Development headquarters in Washington DC on Feb 7, 2025. (EPA Images pic)
WASHINGTON: A federal judge has temporarily lifted a freeze on funding to US aid and development programmes ordered by president Donald Trump’s administration, court documents seen by AFP on Feb 14 showed.
Judge Amir Ali, who was appointed by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden in November, prohibited the Trump administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” foreign assistance funds, according to the Feb 13 ruling.
The Trump administration has frozen foreign aid funding, ordered thousands of internationally based staff to return to the US, and begun slashing the USAID headcount of 10,000 employees to around only 300.
This has put the work of USAID in some of the world’s poorest countries in doubt. The agency has a budget of US$42.8 billion, representing 42% of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.
The new court order also stops the government from “issuing, implementing, enforcing, or otherwise giving effect to terminations, suspensions, or stop-work orders” in relation to existing contracts as of Jan 19, 2025.
The ruling said that the “stated purpose in implementing the suspension of all foreign aid is to provide the opportunity to review programmes for their efficiency and consistency with priorities”.
“However, 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 organisations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programmes,” it said.
The plaintiffs in the case are or represent groups of small and large businesses and health and journalistic non-profits that receive federal grant money to perform foreign assistance work.
Trump, who began his second term in January, has launched a campaign led by his top donor Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to downsize or dismantle swathes of the US government.
The most concentrated fire has been on USAID, the primary organisation for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world with health and emergency programmes in around 120 countries.
Trump has said USAID was “run by radical lunatics” and Musk has described it as a “criminal organisation” needing to be put “through the woodchipper”.
Newly confirmed health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said that USAID, founded by his uncle, slain president John F Kennedy, has become a “sinister propagator of totalitarianism”.
Trump this week fired the independent inspector-general for USAID, US media outlets reported.
Paul Martin’s dismissal came a day after his office issued a report critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, the Washington Post, CNN and others reported. - FMT

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