Chief Justice Roberts keeps in place Trump funding freeze that threatens billions in foreign aid

<p><img src="https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/6f7f5e4/2147483647/strip/true/cro…; alt="?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fc"></p><div> <p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday temporarily kept in place the Trump administration’s decision to freeze nearly $5 billion in <span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-foreign-aid-freeze-congress-65ad0226d0… aid</a></span>.</p><p>Roberts acted on the administration’s emergency appeal to the <span><a href="https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court">Supreme Court</a></span> in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. President Donald Trump said last month that he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.</p> <p>The high court order is temporary, though it suggests the justices will reverse a lower court ruling that withholding the funding was likely illegal. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled last week that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding.</p><p>Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter Aug. 28 that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved <span><a href="https://apnews.com/hub/foreign-aid">foreign aid</a></span>, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.</p><p>He used what’s known as <span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-foreign-aid-pocket-rescission-374c63e6… pocket rescission</a></span>. That’s when a president submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to not spend the approved money. The late notice means Congress cannot act on the request in the required 45-day window and the money goes unspent. </p> <p>The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to <span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-budget-deficit-trump-tariffs-treasury-992… deficit</a></span> and the possible damage to America’s reputation abroad as foreign populations lose access to food supplies and development programs. The administration turned to the high court after a panel of federal appellate judges declined to block Ali’s ruling.</p> <p>Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid that had been subject to the freeze would be spent before the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30.</p><p>The case has been winding its way through the courts for months, and Ali said he understood that his ruling would not be the last word on the matter.</p> <p>“This case raises questions of immense legal and practical importance, including whether there is any avenue to test the executive branch’s decision not to spend congressionally appropriated funds,” he wrote.</p><p>In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out an earlier injunction Ali had issued to require that the money be spent. But the three-judge panel did not shut down the lawsuit.</p><p>After Trump issued his rescission notice, the plaintiffs returned to Ali’s court and the judge issued the order that’s now being challenged.</p> </div>