A federal judge ordered the US administration to release foreign aid payments that are due under certain existing contracts.

A United States district judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration must pay nearly $2 billion (€1.84 billion) in outstanding foreign aid.

The administration halted aid on January 20, Trump’s first day in office, but Judge Amir Ali in Washington said payment must be made for work that has already been completed.

He, however, declined a request from nonprofit groups and businesses to order the administration to restore thousands of foreign aid contracts and grants that have been canceled.

At the same time, Ali ruled against the Trump administration on a major legal issue, saying that the president must spend money approved by Congress.

US Supreme Court cleared path for ruling

Monday’s ruling comes after the US Supreme Court last week rejected Trump’s emergency request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments for work done up to February 13.

Ali initially ordered the Trump administration to restart foreign aid in a February 13 ruling, setting a February 26 deadline.

The administration asked the Supreme Court to block the deadline, but the justices rejected the request in a 5-4 ruling on Wednesday.

Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete

On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration had completed its six-week review of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been around for sixty years.

He said some 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs were eliminated.

Those programs “spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve (and in some cases even harmed) the core national interests of the United States,” Rubio wrote.

“In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping … to be administered more effectively under the State Department,” he said.