US foreign assistance to Eurasian states and elsewhere remains in limbo as the State Department pushes back on a federal court order to lift a funding freeze and resume full operations.

Federal Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary order on February 13 to lift a funding freeze on foreign aid programs around the world, including USAID-sponsored operations. Since then, administration officials have not issued any instructions to implementing organizations concerning the resumption of programmatic activities, or on accessing already appropriated funds.

In a filing February 18, lawyers for the State Department contended that the government is in compliance with the court order, claiming that a comprehensive review of thousands of contracts and grants showed that officials had the authority to suspend them at will. 

In response, lawyers for plaintiff organizations filed a motion calling on top officials from the State Department, USAID and the Office of Management and Budget to be held in contempt. The motion cited anonymous sources within USAID who say no comprehensive review of agreements has occurred. The plaintiffs accuse officials of “brazen defiance” of the court order, adding that the assertion of a comprehensive review “strains credulity.”

Judge Ali set a February 20 deadline for the government to respond to the contempt motion.

Meanwhile, a lengthy commentary published February 19 by a leading independent news outlet in Central Asia, the Tajik-based Asia-Plus news agency, praised USAID and laments the agency’s pending demise, calling it harmful to US interests.

The commentary notes that USAID had provided roughly $20 million in assistance over the past two years to help “to vulnerable households facing growing food insecurity in Tajikistan,” adding that about 200,000 individuals had benefited from the program. It also lauded programs to help farmers produce more nutritious crops to help expand export markets, and highlighted the agency’s key role in helping contain the spread of HIV/AIDS.

“The current administration's vision of the importance of this organization [USAID] is strategically short-sighted, since in these times, soft power instruments are the most important factor in international affairs, and abandoning them will seriously affect America’s [global] standing,” the commentary states. “Most importantly, we must take into account the fact that the termination of USAID and American aid in general will seriously affect efforts to solve [social and economic] problems facing countries like as Tajikistan.”