Judge blocks Trump’s foreign aid freeze, saying it has ‘catastrophic effect’ on nonprofits
A federal judge has temporarily halted the Trump administration’s sweeping 90-day foreign aid freeze, delivering a rebuke to one of President Donald Trump’s most ambitious and consequential executive actions.
The aid groups that sued the Trump administration – including the State Department and USAID – earlier this week over the president’s Jan. 20 executive order successfully argued that the aid freeze “will continue to have a catastrophic effect on the humanitarian missions of several plaintiffs,” U.S. Judge Amir Ali, a Biden-era appointee, wrote in an order late Thursday.
Ali issued a narrowly tailored temporary restraining order that prohibits the Trump administration from cutting off congressionally appropriated foreign aid or cancelling any contracts for federal foreign aid assistance. He notably declined to issue a broader order that would block enforcement of Trump’s day-one executive order reevaluating foreign aid because the president does have the right to “conduct a comprehensive internal review of government programs.”
“To be sure, there is nothing arbitrary and capricious about executive agencies conducting a review of programs,” Ali wrote before turning to the consequences of the funding freeze. “But there has been no explanation offered in the record…as to why reviewing programs—many long-standing and taking place pursuant to contractual terms— required an immediate and wholesale suspension of appropriated foreign aid.”
Ali had harsh words for the government’s decision to freeze foreign aid en masse, which he said “set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country.”
Source: abcNEWS
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