A federal judge in Washington has blocked President Trump’s latest move to freeze foreign aid that had been approved by Congress, ruling that the administration had violated the Constitutional separation of powers.
Last week, the White House told Congress that it intended to cancel $4.9 billion that lawmakers had appropriated for foreign aid programs, invoking a little-known and legally untested power to cut spending without their approval. The move, known as a “pocket rescission,” is essentially a last-minute attempt to claw back money at the end of the fiscal year, which is Sept. 30.
Mr. Trump’s long-running effort to freeze foreign aid has plunged programs aimed at responding to humanitarian disasters and disease prevention into chaos. Deprived of funding, foreign aid groups that fight starvation, run medical trials and help war refugees have been forced to freeze services, lay off essential employees or shut down altogether.
On Wednesday, Judge Amir H. Ali of Federal District Court in Washington, a Biden appointee, said he was deeply skeptical of the administration’s arguments that it had the power to not spend money appropriated by law. Judge Ali wrote that the government had changed its stated rationale for canceling foreign aid several times over months of court battles, and did so again in arguments for this case.
“Even having changed their position,” Judge Ali wrote in his 43-page opinion, “there is not a plausible interpretation of the statutes that would justify the billions of dollars they plan to withhold.”
He continued: “Whatever the reason, defendants have given no justification to displace the bedrock expectation that Congress’s appropriations must be followed.”
Judge Ali’s ruling comes just days after the federal appeals court in Washington declined to block Mr. Trump’s effort to withhold foreign aid spending, but then remanded the case to the district court for further consideration. Writing that the case “raises questions of immense legal and practical importance,” Judge Ali ruled that the Trump administration must unfreeze the money appropriated for foreign aid and spend it unless Congress acts first to claw the funds back.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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