Halt foreign aid payments-Trump administration tells Supreme Court

The Trump administration has turned to the U.S. Supreme Court in a bid to secure authority to block billions in foreign aid funds approved by Congress, setting up a high-stakes confrontation over the constitutional “power of the purse.”

On Tuesday, the Justice Department submitted an emergency request to the justices, seeking to overturn a federal district court order that compels the administration to release the money before the fiscal year ends on September 30.

Solicitor General John Sauer argued that organizations representing foreign aid contractors have no legal standing to sue the government. Instead, he maintained that only Congress, under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, can challenge the executive branch over unspent funds.

The filing also signals that the administration believes it can exercise so-called “pocket rescissions” — delays in spending so close to the fiscal deadline that Congress cannot realistically reverse them.

The request follows years of tension over the 1974 law, which limits a president’s ability to cancel appropriated spending without congressional approval. While the law allows temporary pauses, permanent cancellation requires Congress’s consent through a rescission process.

Earlier this month, a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that only the comptroller general — the head of the Government Accountability Office — may sue over presidential impoundments. Aid groups are pushing for a rehearing by the full bench, but that process remains unresolved.

For now, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s order stands, requiring that the disputed funds be formally obligated by the end of September. Unless the appellate court intervenes, the Trump administration must comply — unless the Supreme Court steps in first.

Sauer urged the justices to rule by September 2 or, at minimum, to suspend Judge Ali’s directive while the legal dispute unfolds.

Advocacy groups, however, see the appeal as part of a larger attempt by Trump to weaken congressional control over spending. Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition — one of the challengers — said the administration’s move represents both hostility to foreign assistance and a dangerous erosion of checks and balances.