The Trump administration must make some payments to foreign aid contractors and grant recipients by 6 p.m. (1100 GMT) on Monday, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed the administration’s request to avoid a deadline for the payments. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali came at the end of a hearing in a lawsuit by contractors and non-profit grant recipients challenging President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging freeze of U.S. foreign aid, a day after the groups got a boost from the Supreme Court. It orders the government to pay invoices submitted by the plaintiffs in the case before February 13. Ali said he would issue a further order with more details on when the U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department must make further payments for past work, including to organizations that are not part of the lawsuit. The government has estimated that the total amount of those payments is close to $2 billion. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ali on February 13 had blocked the administration from imposing a blanket pause on nearly all foreign aid, though it left room for the agencies to cancel contracts for other reasons. Plaintiffs said in court filings that the administration refused to comply, leading the judge on February 25 to impose a deadline late the following day for releasing some funds. The government said it could not meet that deadline, and the Supreme Court, in sending the case back, told Ali to consider the "feasibility of any compliance timelines."
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