On Monday, the Trump administration requested that the Supreme Court allow the government to withhold $4 billion of spending on foreign aid that was approved by Congress.
The move came in response to a federal judge’s ruling last week that requires the administration to spend the aid funds despite President Donald Trump notifying Congress that he intends not to.
The case marks a showdown over whether the president can refuse to spend money that Congress has appropriated
The legal fight quickly landed at the Supreme Court after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled last week that the executive branch must 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 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.
In seeking relief from the Supreme Court, Sauer, the solicitor general, said Ali’s injunction “puts the executive branch at war with itself” by requiring it to spend the same $4 billion that the president wants to claw back.
“To have any hope of complying in time, the executive branch would have to immediately commence diplomatic discussions with foreign nations about the use of those funds — discussions the President considers counterproductive to foreign policy — and notify Congress about planned obligations that the President is strongly opposing,” he added.
Since returning to the White House, the Trump administration has canceled billions of dollars in contracts and grants that it says do not align with the president’s policy objectives. On the first day of his second term, the president signed an executive order that called for a 90-day pause in foreign aid and said administration officials would determine whether to continue or cease each foreign assistance program.
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Why is this any different than the President refusing or vetoing a bill passed by Congress. That bill can still be passed if sufficient member of Congress vote to override the veto. Unfortunately Congress gives out money like it is Monopoly money and they hope voters won’t remember their careless spending habits,