U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday paused a federal judge's order requiring President Donald Trump's administration to pay foreign aid funds to contractors and grant recipients.

A federal judge expressed frustration Tuesday that the Trump administration appears to be ignoring his two-week-old order to unfreeze billions of dollars for foreign assistance grants and contracts, prompting him to set a short deadline for the State Department to begin paying out funds and to explain its recalcitrance.

The ruling marked the second the time a federal judge had pushed the Trump administration to act after finding that it had ignored an earlier order.