A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that President Trump can withhold some $2 billion in foreign aid payments, overturning a lower-court order that had blocked the administration’s plans to slash disbursements from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of judges on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia lifted Biden-appointed District Judge Amir Ali’s temporary restraining order, which forced USAID to continue making billions of dollars in foreign assistance payments for work already done by organizations the agency contracted with.
Ali issued the restraining order in February in response to a lawsuit filed by two nonprofit organizations, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Journalism Development Network, after Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid funding on his first day in office.
Judge Karen Henderson, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, noted in the majority opinion Wednesday that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring a case against the Trump administration’s funding freeze.
“The district court erred in granting that relief because the grantees lack a cause of action to press their claims,” Henderson wrote.
The nonprofits had argued that the president exceeded his authority by virtually abolishing USAID and cutting congressionally approved spending.
Henderson, joined in the majority by Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, ruled that under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, only the Government Accountability Office – a congressional watchdog agency – had standing to challenge the president’s order to withhold foreign aid.
Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, slammed the funding freeze as “unlawful” and warned it could lead to “tyranny” in her dissenting opinion.
“The court’s acquiescence in and facilitation of the Executive’s unlawful behavior derails the carefully crafted system of checked and balanced power that serves as the greatest security against tyranny – the accumulation of excessive authority in a single Branch,” Pan wrote.
A White House Office of Management and Budget spokesperson hailed the ruling, telling Reuters it would halt “radical left dark money groups” from “maliciously interfering with the president’s ability to spend responsibly and to administer foreign aid in a lawful manner in alignment with his America First policies.”
The Trump administration had previously petitioned the Supreme Court to lift Ali’s restraining order, but in a 5-4 ruling, the high court rejected the bid.
In February, the State Department outlined plans to eliminate roughly $60 billion in foreign aid spending and terminate 92% of grants issued by USAID.
The figures were included in a State Department memo detailing the results of a foreign aid audit ordered by Trump.
The audit identified nearly 15,000 grants and targeted almost 10,000 for elimination — the majority of which were issued by USAID.
USAID was one of the first federal agencies that Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly led by billionaire Elon Musk, targeted for massive cuts based on allegations of widespread waste, fraud and abuse within the agency.In July, Congress approved a White House recession request that clawed back about $8 billion earmarked for USAID.
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