The Trump administration is trying to pump the brakes on a foreign aid deadline.

That deadline being midnight Wednesday.

They’re appealing to the Supreme Court to pause the mandate that would force the release of billions in payments.

With foreign aid payments now exposed to the world, it’s time for a new era of government accountability.

And this includes NOT just letting billions flow in foreign aid.

ADVERTISEMENT

Pray that Trump’s admin is successful and this mandate is indeed stopped.

The Hill reports:

The Justice Department filed an emergency application at the Supreme Court Wednesday asking to block a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in blocked foreign aid payments.

A federal judge set the deadline after the finding the administration had not complied with his previous ruling to restart the flow of foreign aid contracts and grants as litigation continues.

“The court’s 11:59 p.m. 30-some-hour deadline thus moved all the goalposts,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the motion.

“It is not tailored to any actual payment deadlines associated with respondents’ invoices or drawn-down requests, or anyone else’s. And it has thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos,” she continued.

Harris asked for an immediate ruling blocking the midnight deadline until the court can resolve the motion, insisting that the government can’t feasibly resume the payments by then.

CBS News adds:

Ali, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2024, is overseeing the case brought by a group of companies, nonprofits and other organizations that receive money from the State Department and the USAID. He issued a temporary restraining order earlier this month that prevented the Trump administration from freezing foreign aid funds for contracts and other awards while proceedings continued.

But the contractors told Ali earlier this week that foreign aid funding was still not flowing despite his order, and sought prompt payment for work they completed weeks ago. The international development groups said they were owed millions of dollars for invoices and reimbursements, and warned the Trump administration’s failure to reinstate the funding forced them to furlough workers and end critical programs overseas.

Ali granted their motion to enforce his earlier order and gave the State Department and USAID 36 hours to pay the bills related to foreign aid contracts and grants.

ADVERTISEMENT

Justice Department lawyers said in a separate filing that they estimated the payments covered by Ali’s order approached $2 billion, and for the challengers alone, the amount at issue was at least $250 million.

“This new order requiring payment of enormous sums in less than 36 hours intrudes deeply into the prerogatives of the Executive Branch and the president’s obligation under Article II to take care that the laws are faithfully executed,” they wrote in a filing to the D.C. Circuit.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.