Court extends order lifting Trump administration's foreign aid freeze

A U.S. federal court extended a temporary restraining order mandating that the Trump administration lift its blanket freeze on foreign assistance funding for existing programs. The directive should, in theory, allow aid to resume until March 10, which is when the new order expires, but it remains to be seen if the administration will comply given that it largely refused to follow the original order.  

The order challenges the way USAID’s front office has continued suspending and terminating programs, with Peter Marocco, the agency’s acting deputy administrator, stating earlier this week that virtually all contracts and grants were eligible for cancellation based on existing federal and USAID regulations.  

Marocco and the government said that while the temporary restraining order mandated a thaw of the blanket funding freeze, it also stated that normal contract clauses could still be enforced — an argument it used to review and terminate hundreds of contracts. But in the most recent hearing, Judge Amir Ali refuted that justification.