The Supreme Court of the USA declined to let President Donald Trump’s administration withhold the payments to foreign aid organizations for work they have already completed for the government. The Supreme Court rejected President Trump’s request to freeze about $2 billion in foreign aid and payments. President Trump is doing whatever he can in order to hinder the American humanitarian projects around the world.
Facts in brief-
A U.S. District Judge (Washington) Amir Ali, who was appointed by the previous President Joe Biden, passed an order which restrained the Trump Administration from ‘suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing’ the foreign assistance funds released by the USA. The District Judge ordered that the administration to promptly release the funding to contractors and recipients of grants from the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and the State Department for their work already completed.
The District Judge Ali gave a deadline of 26 February to the administration to release the unpaid funds withheld by them. In this, the administration expressed that it would take weeks to disburse such a huge fund, which is about $2 billion to the recipients.
The Supreme Court-
The Chief Justice of the US, John Roberts, stayed District Judge Ali’s order hours before the midnight deadline. He gave the reasoning for this to give the Supreme Court additional time to consider the administration’s more formal request to analyse Ali’s ruling. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three Justices whom Trump appointed during his first presidential term. The Supreme Court did not provide any rationale behind its action on Wednesday. However, the original deadline has now lapsed, the Supreme Court instructed the District Judge Ali to “clarify what obligations the government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”
As per the Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris on March 3, staying Ali’s order “is warranted to prevent reinstatement of a new, short-fused deadline that would unlawfully commandeer federal payment processes anew.” Further, acting SG Harris argued that the judge’s order amounted to judicial overreach and had given the administration too little time to scrutinize the invoices “to ensure the legitimacy of all payments.” The Lawyers representing the administration said in a separate February 26 filing that full payments could take weeks to process.
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Trump and the USAID
The US President Donald Trump has on many occasions during his election campaigns expressed that he is committed to ‘ make America great again’. He also used this as a slogan in his campaigns and speeches. He also promised his people to do so and also asked for their support. The Trump administration said that it is eliminating more than 90% of the USAID aid contracts and $60 billion in overall US assistance all around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of US development and humanitarian help abroad. He also expressed that most of the countries do not need the aid but are receiving that, and those in need, that is not the US problem.
Not only is President Donald Trump, but his ally Elon Musk is also very affirmative on hitting the foreign aid harder. Not only harder but also faster than almost any other target in their push to cut the size of the federal government. Both of these men say that the USAID projects advance a liberal agenda and are nothing but a waste of money.
On January 20, Trump ordered what he said would be a 90-day program-by-program review of which foreign assistance programs deserved to continue, and cut off all foreign assistance funds almost overnight. The funding freeze has stopped thousands of US-funded programs abroad. The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have pulled the most of the USAID staff off the job either through forced leave or firings.