موقع وجه أفريقيا موقع وجه أفريقيا هو موقع مهتم بمتابعة التطورات في القارة الأفريقية
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The Trump administration says it will take “multiple weeks” to pay out nearly $2 billion owed to contractors and organizations affected by late January’s sweeping foreign aid freeze, despite a court order to have it completed by midnight tonight.
The administration claimed the State Department was “expected” to pay $4 million it owes for work done prior to the freeze and said United States Agency for International Development has released over $11 million.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was brought by nonprofits and contractors alleging harm by the blanket freeze on foreign assistance, argued that the Trump administration has “undertaken no meaningful efforts whatsoever” to make the payments. They said the administration’s dismantling of the USAID workforce make it ““extremely difficult, if not impossible” to comply with the orders.
Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary restraining order nearly two weeks ago partially pausing the blanket funding freeze and ordering the revival of funding for contracts that existed at the end of Biden administration, but the funding hasn’t restarted.
At an emergency hearing on Tuesday, a Justice Department lawyer could not point to any particular programs that had their funding restored, nor could the lawyer elaborate on how the State Department and USAID were carrying out the judge’s order.
The judge responded by ordering payment by midnight tonight of all foreign aid work that had been completed by the time of his original order.
