Newsman: Chief Justice John Roberts intervened after the Trump administration told the high court that it could not comply with a midnight deadline to unfreeze payments.
The Trump administration disclosed Wednesday that it is eliminating more than 90% of USAID foreign-aid contracts — and cutting $60 billion in foreign assistance overall.
Chief Justice Roberts on Wednesday granted a respite to the Trump administration as it seeks to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali imposed a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday for the federal government to pay nearly $2 billion in unpaid invoices from foreign-aid contractors. , despite a judge’s order directing the administration to resume payments immediately.
Chief Justice Roberts issued a stay of Ali’s order shortly after acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris filed an emergency application arguing that it was impossible for officials to comply with that urgent deadline. Ali ordered the government to unfreeze the funds in response to lawsuits from aid groups that say they’re being devastated by the administration’s broad cutoff of foreign assistance.
Chief Justice offered no rationale for his decision. He issued it around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday in a form that the justices typically use to pause lower-court proceedings temporarily while the high court considers how to proceed. The chief justice ordered the aid groups that filed the lawsuits to respond to the government’s application by noon on Friday.
Chief Justice Roberts’ intervention heads off the possibility of administration officials being held in contempt for failing to comply with the order from
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali acted after finding that the Trump administration had essentially flouted earlier orders he issued requiring the State Department to lift a blanket freeze on overseas aid programs.
Rather than take steps to unfreeze that aid, as Judge Ali had directed Feb. 13, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development found new legal rationales to keep it on hold, the judge said.
As a result, Ali gave the administration the midnight Wednesday deadline to send the payments for what officials have estimated is $2 billion-worth of unpaid work completed by aid contractors.
Peter Marocco, the Trump appointee leading USAID’s day-to-day operations, filed a statement with Ali Tuesday suggesting that it would be impossible to meet his quick deadline and in fact would require “weeks’ of work to restart dismantled payment systems.
“Restarting funding related to terminated or suspended agreements is not as simple as turning on a switch or faucet,” Marocco said. “Rather, the payment systems of USAID and State are complicated and require various steps before payments are authorized to be disbursed by the U.S. Treasury, Department of Health and Human Services, and/or the Department of State, involving multiple agencies.”
