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Federal judge orders State Department to renew funding for assistance programs [1]
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Date: 2025-02
Azerbaijani medical professionals participate in a training conducted by WHO specialists with the support of USAID in 2023. (Photo: WHO, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO)
A US federal judge has ordered the US State Department to temporarily lift a freeze on foreign assistance, but it remains unclear how and when aid programs in Eurasia and elsewhere around the world will resume.
Judge Amir Ali, a judge with the US District Court for Washington, DC, set a February 18 deadline for the State Department to comply with his ruling, which was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by entities that had been severely impacted by the funding freeze.
The State Department abruptly issued a 90-day stop-work order, accompanied by a funding freeze, on January 24, ostensibly to comply with an executive order to review all US foreign assistance programs. The Trump administration concurrently moved quickly to overhaul the chief vehicle for the provision of foreign assistance, the US Agency for International Development. The funding freeze has caused fiscal upheaval across the global non-profit/non-governmental sector, forcing the suspension of activities and causing mass layoffs.
In ordering a lifting of the funding freeze, Judge Ali wrote on February 13 that the Trump administration had not provided a reasonable explanation “for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid … was a rational precursor to reviewing programs,” the Associated Press reported.
The funding freeze ruling, along with a separate temporary injunction on administration efforts to eliminate USAID as a separate government agency, comprise the most significant judicial checks to date on executive authority since Trump began his second presidential term.
The State Department has notified recipients of government foreign assistance funding, including USAID grantees, about the judicial order in compliance with Judge Ali’s instructions. But as of the morning of February 17, the State Department had not provided guidance on the resumption of operations and funding for foreign assistance programs.
The Trump administration’s moves to shrink USAID and trim the governmental bureaucracy mean that restarting foreign assistance programs could prove a prolonged process. Judge Ali’s ruling does not address the 90-day review period: the administration still can opt to stop aid projects following the review period.
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