Themis v. Trump: the court temporarily “unfreezes” USAID funding
14 February 11:35
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift the funding freeze that has led to the suspension of US aid around the world. This was reported by the Associated Press, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary order in a lawsuit initiated by two organizations – the AIDS Rights Coalition and the Global Health Council.
In making this decision, the judge cited the enormous damage that the sudden cessation of funding has caused to non-profit and other organizations that help provide US assistance abroad.
It is emphasized that the funding cutoff has left contractors, farmers and suppliers in the United States and around the world without hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for work already done and has led to large-scale layoffs among these employees.
As Judge Amir Ali noted in his order, the Trump administration claimed that it had to cut off funding for thousands of USAID assistance programs abroad in order to conduct a thorough analysis of each program and determine whether it should be eliminated. However, according to the judge, administration officials “offered no explanation as to why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign assistance was a rational solution to review programs.”
The resolution, in particular, prohibits Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other Trump administration officials from executing orders to shut down USAID.
Also, the US media reported that another federal judge blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) from accessing Treasury Department records that contain personal financial data of millions of Americans.
Democrats legislatively want to stop USAID liquidation
A group of House Democrats has introduced legislation to prevent the Trump administration from liquidating the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). According to THE HILL, this document is called the “US National Security Protection Act”. It aims to prove that the USAID reform must comply with the law and “not harm American soft power.”
As a reminder, on January 20, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order temporarily suspending all US foreign aid programs for 90 days. As noted, this was done in order to check whether these programs meet the foreign policy interests of the President of the United States.
