Updated February 21, 2025 at 09:25 AM ET
Groups that receive foreign aid are asking a federal judge to find the Trump officials now running the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development in contempt of court for not reopening the flow of money to thousands of programs around the globe, as the judge has ordered.
In a filing Wednesday afternoon, the plaintiffs said that each day the funding is delayed, millions of people across the world who rely on it suffer. It urged the judge to impose penalties until the U.S. government complies.
The plaintiffs were responding to a court filing in which USAID insisted it had the right to cancel most of its foreign aid contracts. In that Tuesday filing, the agency said it was also reviewing contracts and grants one by one for evidence of waste, fraud and to ensure they are aligned with President Trump's goals.
"This Court should not brook such brazen defiance of the express terms of its order," the plaintiffs said Wednesday.
On Thursday, Judge Amir H. Ali of the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia issued another order warning USAID that it must start paying its global partners again.
The judge appeared to be losing patience with the government. He wrote that his order telling USAID to pay the organizations "does not permit Defendants to simply continue their blanket suspension of congressionally appropriated foreign aid pending a review of the agreements for whether they should be continued or terminated."
Judge Ali, however, stopped short of finding the government in contempt.
Last week, Ali ordered USAID to start funding programs again while the case plays out. Ali said the plaintiffs, who receive money from USAID, showed that the loss of funding "threatens the very existence of [their] business."
He had given USAID until Tuesday to respond and explain how it was complying with his order. The case is one of several that have been filed against USAID on behalf of employees and aid recipients.
The sudden halt in funding has reverberated across the globe, forcing the shut down of everything from safe-houses for Cambodian rights defenders to the layoff of journalists investigating corruption in authoritarian states.
But the judge's order appeared to provide USAID some wiggle room. Ali said it would not prohibit the agency from "enforcing the terms of contracts or grants."
In its filing Tuesday, USAID cited that provision to justify its moves. The agency says it reviewed the terms of contracts and found they explicitly or "implicitly" allow USAID to end most of them.
USAID says it has already terminated nearly 500 contracts, including some because they focused on diversity, equity and inclusion and others because they promoted sustainability and combatted climate change.
USAID officials said other contracts were cancelled because they supported "Regime Change, 'Civic Society' or 'Democracy Promotion.'"
USAID has not killed all foreign aid. It says it has spared more than 20 contracts worth more than $250 million. That is a tiny fraction of the agency's annual spending.
In fiscal year 2023, USAID spent more than $40 billion in about 130 countries. The vast majority of money went to help with governance, health and humanitarian assistance. More than a quarter of the total budget went to sub-Saharan Africa.One of USAID's goals is to promote democracy abroad.
"It's just bizarre," said an executive with an organization which receives USAID funding, pointing out that the agency was eliminating projects it had labeled, perhaps skeptically, as "democracy promotion."
"This is Alice in Wonderland stuff."
The executive asked that he and his organization not be named for fear of retribution.
The Trump administration wants to fold USAID into the State Department. In the past month, State has also terminated more than 700 "foreign assistance-funded grants," according to an affidavit filed by Peter Marocco, USAID's deputy administrator.
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