Feb. 26 (UPI) — The Trump administration is terminating 10,000 awards for foreign aid worth millions of dollars, including for humanitarian aid, with about one-quarter of the deals, $57 billion, remaining, according to a court filing Wednesday.
Also in the filing, the Justice Department lawyers said the U.S. Department of State cannot meet a court-ordered 11:59 p.m. EST Wednesday to adhere to a federal judge’s decision to pay what is owed by the Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department.
On Wednesday night, DOJ filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court that asks the justices to halt the deadline to restart $2 billion in foreign aid payments. It bypasses the appeals court.
Trump in an executive order on his first day in office on Jan. 20 ordered the agencies to pause nearly all foreign aid spending for 90 days as the contracts are reviewed. Foreign aid represented 1% of the federal budget.
Trump, besides wanting to slash aid, is seeking to shut USAID, formed in the 1960s, with assistance though the State Department.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, of the District of Columbia, had set the deadline after aid groups and businesses argued that the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development had not been complying with his Feb. 13 order immediately blocking a blanket freeze on foreign aid.
The Trump administration filed a motion to halt Ali’s order, along with an appeal to a higher court – the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Ali judge denied the motion.
“USAID is in the process of processing termination letters with the goal to reach substantial completion within the next 24-48 hours,” the administration said in a court document, which was filed Wednesday afternoon. “As a result, no USAID or State obligations remain in a suspended or paused state.”
The agency is working to restart $2 billion in foreign aid payments.
Nearly 90% of the USAID awards, 5,800, were terminated and more than 500 USAID awards were retained, according to the filing. Also, approximately 4,100 State awards were terminated, and about 2,700 State awards were retained.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also is serving as USAID administrator, had “individually reviewed” all previously terminated programs, and concluded doing so was in the country’s national interest.
The total ceiling value of the retained awards is approximately $57 billion.
Within hours, organizations began receiving termination emails from Adam Cox, the agency’s deputy director in the Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Devec reported.
In 2023, USAID and the State Department obligated $61 billion to 11,000 projects worldwide, according to federal data.
The government estimated it would have to free about $2 billion to be in compliance. It said it expects to be able to free up roughly $15 million by the end of the day
The motion said “regardless whether this Court stays the district court’s order, agency leadership has determined that the ordered payments ‘cannot be accomplished in the time allotted by the district court,” their filing said.
Ali repeatedly asked lawyers to clarify whether any funds had been released since his Feb. 13 directive. The lawyer was unable to point to any sign that the aid money was flowing. He then issued a new deadline for the government to pay any outstanding invoices or drawdown requests that were due before his original Feb. 13 order by midnight on Thursday.
The plaintiffs have blasted the Trump administration.
“For twelve days, Defendants have stonewalled and abjectly defied the district court’s unambiguous temporary restraining order,” the plaintiffs said. “It makes no sense that the State Department and USAID – which have had no trouble timely disbursing payments for decades before the unlawful funding freeze – would now be unable to do so, but for Defendants’ deliberate efforts to halt payments.”
“Defendants have erected numerous new barriers to compliance at every turn. This conduct cannot be explained as anything other than willful defiance of the Court’s orders,” the plaintiffs said in another filing.
At least some money for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, had been eliminated, including some previously deemed essential and exempted from the aid freeze, aid workers and USAID officials told The New York Times.
This week, between 1,600 and 2,000 of the 10,000 staff members, including those in foreign countries, were terminated from the agency. All remaining direct hires were placed on administrative leave.