Happy St Valentine’s Day!
I awoke this morning to a tweet from Libs of TikTok, noting that yet another federal judge has tried to block President Trump’s ‘pause’ in foreign aid spending.
Judge orders Trump administration to temporarily allow funds for foreign aid
by the Associated Press | Thursday, February 13, 2025 | 11:53 PM EST
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift a three-week funding freeze that has shut down U.S. aid and development programs worldwide.
Judge Amir Ali issued the order Thursday in U.S. district court in Washington in a lawsuit brought by two health organizations that receive U.S. funding for programs abroad.
Newsweek noted that Judge Ali was one of President Joe Biden’s last judicial appointees, confirmed by the then Democrat-controlled Senate after the election.
In his order, Ali noted that the Trump administration argued it had to shut down funding for the thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development aid programs abroad to conduct a thorough review of each program and whether it should be eliminated.
However, administration officials “have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended” contracts with thousands of nonprofit groups, businesses and others “was a rational precursor to reviewing programs,” the judge said.
And there’s the issue: “congressionally appropriated foreign aid.” In 2024 Congress, with the House of Representatives narrowly controlled by Republicans, and the Senate controlled by Democrats, appropriations weren’t done properly, but by continuing resolutions, and the current one expires at midnight on March 14th. At that point, without further appropriations, spending authority ceases. The Republicans now control both Houses of Congress, and can add sequestration authority to the President and simply not appropriate anything for USAID and any of the other wasteful things which have been allowed to accumulate in our budget for years and years, including under previous Republican Congresses and Presidents.