Lawyers for the government had said it would miss a deadline to release more than $1.5 billion in payments for past aid work and sought a late intervention from the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday night paused a lower court-imposed midnight deadline to restart $2 billion in foreign aid payments after the Trump administration paused 10,000 awards.

Chief justice gives court additional time to consider the administration's more formal request to block lower court ruling