Supreme Court rejects Trump's foreign aid freeze

Here & Now Anytime

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4.6 • 911 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

In a 5-4 ruling on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's push to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments for work that has already been completed. Georgetown Law professor Mary McCord joins us to explain what the decision means. Then, it's the height of tax season, but the Internal Revenue Service is down thousands of agents, thanks to recent cuts by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk. One team gutted by Musk's DOGE specialized in making sure the super-rich and big corporations paid their taxes. ProPublica's Andy Kroll tells us more. And, state lawmakers in Oklahoma are now trying to add some professionalism — via a licensing program — to storm chasing in an effort to keep the general public more aware of severe weather in their area. Oklahoma lawmaker Rep. Scott Fetgatter explains.

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0:17.1	Learn more about safeguarding the future of public media.
0:20.6	Visit protectmypublic public media.org.
0:25.3	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:31.0	The U.S. Supreme Court rules of federal judge can force the government to pay contractors for work they've already done
0:38.9	after the Trump administration tried to renege on foreign aid payments.
0:43.5	It's Wednesday, March 5th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBWR.
0:48.5	I'm Chris Bentley. Today on the show, Doge is making cuts to the IRS at the height of tax season.
1:04.7	One former commissioner says, when you hamstring the IRS, it's just a tax cut for tax cheats. Also, state lawmakers in Oklahoma
1:14.0	want to add some professionalism via a licensing program to storm chasing. I guess a lot of people
1:21.0	saw twisters and thought, let's give it a shot. Calls himself a tornado wrangler. If you feel it, chase it.
1:30.1	I said, if you feel it, chase it.
1:33.5	If you feel it, chase it.
1:35.5	That's what I always say about Daily News podcasting.
1:40.6	We'll get to that story in about 15 minutes.
1:43.2	But first, about $2 billion in foreign aid may flow again after a Supreme Court ruling today
1:50.8	denied the Trump administration's request to freeze payments the government had already agreed to make.
1:57.5	Of course, the administration has cut far more than those $2 billion and has fired tens of thousands of federal workers and has plans to cut a lot more.
2:07.8	So this case has implications beyond just these foreign aid contracts.
2:12.5	For more on that, we called up Mary McCord, Georgetown Law Professor.
	...

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