The Justice Department argued that a lawsuit against the administration is moot because the White House has rescinded a memo calling for a funding freeze.

The federal government fell into chaos Tuesday as officials braced for potential interruptions to programs that range from protecting food safety to responding to natural disasters.

A federal judge said the Trump administration failed to comply with his order to resume federal payments to foreign assistance programs administered by the US Agency for International Development, but he declined to hold the government in contempt as requested by groups that sued.

A federal judge will on Friday consider a request to further block President Donald Trump ’s administration from freezing trillions of dollars of grants and loans that fund everything from clean energy programs to bridge repairs to emergency shelters.