Washington — President Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid funding, seeking its intervention in a clash over the president’s refusal to spend money allocated by Congress for foreign assistance programs.
The Trump administration is asking the high court to partially halt a lower court order that required it to spend more than $4 billion in aid by the end of September. Mr. Trump is attempting to claw back that money, which has already been approved by Congress, through a rarely used maneuver known as a pocket rescission.
The dispute also involves another $6.5 billion in foreign assistance, though the Justice Department has said it is taking steps to obligate those funds by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
The legal fight quickly arrived at the Supreme Court after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled last week that the executive branch had to spend the $4 billion in foreign aid funding that Congress had appropriated. The Justice Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to freeze that decision, though it declined to do so last Friday.
In seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the district court’s injunction “raises a grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers.” He is asking the Supreme Court to pause the district court’s order only as to the $4 billion that Mr. Trump is attempting to rescind.
“The President can hardly speak with one voice in foreign affairs or in dealings with Congress when the district court is forcing the Executive Branch to advocate against its own objectives,” Sauer wrote.
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