The United States Supreme Court temporarily delayed a mandatory deadline for the Court that required the Trump administration to pay almost $ 2 billion to the aid organizations contracted by the work they already completed.
The president of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, in an order on Wednesday night, maintained an order of the lower court for the administration to pay $ 1.9 billion at midnight. In his order, Roberts asked the help groups that demanded the Trump administration to provide an response for noon on Friday, after which the court will decide his next steps.
Roberts’ order occurred after the Trump administration requested the emergency intervention by the Superior Court after a panel of judges of the Federal Appeals Court denied the previous request of the administration to promote the deadline.
Interine general lawyer Sarah Harris asked judges to impose an administrative stay, freezing the status quo for a short time.
“What the Government cannot do is pay claims arbitrarily in an arbitrary timeline of the election of the District Court or in accordance with the extra -contractual rules that the Court has devised,” Harris wrote in the emergency application, saying that the deadline created “an unsustainable payment plan” disagree with the president’s obligations.
“The order seems to contemplate the immediate disbursement of almost $ 2 billion. And the government does not have a safe mechanism to recover disbursed funds ingredients delivered to the entities that claim to be close to insolvency,” Harris said in the application.
In early procedures on Wednesday denying a request to maintain its deadline, the judge of the United States District Court, Amir Ali, appointed by the Biden era, was supported by the government’s insistence that he could not comply with the midnight payment deadline and criticized the Trump administration for waiting until Tuesday to raise the argument that they lack the ability to restart financing.
“This is not something that the defendants have previously raised in this court, either at the hearing or at any time before presenting their notice of appeal and seeking a pending appeal of stay. That is so that the motion of the plaintiffs to enforce the fulfillment explicitly proposed by this framework of this time,” Ali wrote.
On Tuesday, ALI had ordered the Trump administration to distribute delayed payments that could add almost $ 2 billion, according to a USAID official, to multiple non -profit groups, which determines that the Trump administration violated the terms of a temporary restriction order issued two weeks ago with respect to the freezing of foreign aid.
A senior official of the United States Agency for International Development said that complying with Tuesday’s court order would require foreign aid groups of almost $ 2 billion, arguing that payments “cannot be achieved” within the period established by the Court.
The lawyers of the Department of Justice asked Ali in a night presentation on Tuesday to issue a suspension of their order that requires the Trump administration to pay before Wednesday at 11:59 PM, any pending debt to foreign aid groups for the completed work before February 13. The Trump administration initially tried to freeze payments through an executive order before Judge Ali ordered the payments to resume two weeks ago.
The lawyers of the Department of Justice argued that complying with payments is not only technically impossible, but also prevent the Trump administration from ensuring that payments are “legitimate.”
A protester uses a USAID vest during a protest against President Donald Trump’s advisor, the campaign of billionaire Elon Musk to eliminate tens of thousands of federal workers, in Capitol Hill in Washington, on February 25, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
“Apparently, the order requires that the Government spend taxpayers dollars without taking into account any process to ensure that expenses are legitimate, despite the fact that the executive leadership of the branch houses concerns about the possibility of waste and fraud and is in the process of developing processing systems reviewed to address those concerns,” wrote the lawyer of Doj Indraanel in a presentation of the foolish foolishness.
According to Peter Marocco, the Usaid Deputy Administrator and the Director of Foreign Assistance in the State Department, comply with the court order would require $ 1.5 billion between 2,000 payment requests in USAID and additional $ 400 million in payments in the State Department.
Earlier this week, Judge Ali excorted the lawyers of the Trump administration during a long hearing about their lack of payment to the groups for the work they did before the executive order of President of President Trump, who frozen all foreign aid for 90 days. Ali also signed an order to enforce a temporary restriction order signed on February 13, saying that groups must be paid before 11:59 pm on Wednesday.
“The plaintiffs presented evidence that the defendants have not raised the suspension or freezing of funds such as the [temporary restraining order] requested. The defendants have not refuted that evidence, and when asked today, the defendants could not provide specific examples of funds that are not released in accordance with the tro of the court, “said Judge Ali after a two -hour hearing today.
The lawyers of the Department of Justice recognized that the Trump administration ignored the temporary restriction order, which forbade them to freeze foreign aid funds since the order was issued. Instead, they argued that they should not have to pay the money due to the “sovereign immunity.”
During an extended exchange with ALI, a lawyer from the Department of Justice struggled to answer basic questions about compliance with the Trump administration with the temporary restriction order, which prevented the administration from freezing funds.
“I’m not sure why I can’t get a direct response from this. Ali asked.” Do you know the steps taken to launch those funds? “
“I am not in a position to respond to that,” said the lawyer of the Department of Justice, Indraneel Sur.
President Donald Trump organizes his first cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
“We are 12 days and you are here representing the government … And you can’t answer me if any funds that you have recognized or covered by the order of the court have not been harmful?” Judge Ali responded.
“Everything I can do, in reality, that is, the preparations are underway for the joint state report on compliance,” South said.
In a part of the long judicial hearing, South tried to offer a legal justification for the breach of the Trump administration, which caused a severe response of the judge about his order, whose terms they said they were “clear like the day.”
“The purpose of this audience is to understand and listen to arguments about the motion to enforce the tro. It is not an opportunity to litigate the tro,” said Ali.
A lawyer who represents the non -profit organizations that presented the case argued that the lack of a response from the Trump administration amounts to the challenge of the court order.
“What the court colloquium has revealed with the Government is that the government has done nothing to make the flow of payments happen,” he said. “As far as we know, there have been zero directives of the agency regarding the lack of funds.”
