confusion

[waves]

Wire Health & Science - Analysis: Vaccine-autism link unproven - sacbee.com

This week, government officials said they have agreed to pay the Polings from a federal fund that compensates people injured by vaccines.

(is the above sentence correct? I think "have agreed" should be changed to "had to")


Today is my birthday. We had plans today.

(the above is from another article. Why "had" is used instead of "have"?)

[Horsa]

In the first sentence "have agreed" is right and the sentence is correct. If you used "had to" it would mean they had no choice but to agree - even if this were true the officials wouldn't want to say that.

As for your second sentence without context I cannot be certain, but the use of had here suggests that the plans have been changed for some reason.