A U.S. federal judge has temporarily stopped President Donald Trump's administration from halting foreign aid contracts — the first such order since the White House launched sweeping cuts to international assistance projects.
On January 20, the day he took office, Trump announced a 90-day freeze on international aid contracts. His executive order stated that the contracts would be reviewed with the intention of cutting those that are not “fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
The move halted programs worldwide that provide development and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations. Among the most critical are clinics that offer HIV prevention, as well as tuberculosis and cholera treatments. Experts warn this could result in thousands of deaths.
The legal order issued late Thursday to restore funding came in response to a lawsuit filed by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Journalism Development Network, which is OCCRP’s parent organization.
“It is not hyperbole to say that this order saves lives,” said Lauren Bateman, a lawyer with Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization that brought the case on behalf of the nonprofits.Â
“It’s been nearly a month since the administration illegally froze foreign assistance funding, unleashing chaos and misery around the world and costing thousands of American jobs,” she said in a statement.
District Judge Amir Ali found that the Trump administration had ordered the immediate suspension of funding for thousands of programs without reviewing each program. Ali determined that the administration's actions were "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law."
The White House had not “offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shock wave,” Ali wrote in his order.Â
The ruling also bars the U.S. Department of State, Secretary of State and Acting Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Marco Rubio, along with other officials, from implementing any contract cancellations or stop-work orders issued after Trump took office.
On Thursday, more than 130 international aid organizations signed a letter to Congress urging members to prevent Trump from dismantling USAID. They noted that USAID accounts for less than 1 percent of the federal budget and highlighted that the agency purchases more than $2 billion in food from American farmers each year.
The aid organizations said the president’s actions have “unnecessarily” halted programs, left employees jobless, and spread “harmful disinformation” about the agency’s work.
“Taken together, these actions not only undermine life-saving development and humanitarian assistance, but they also directly harm U.S. national security and its standing in the world,” the letter stated.
