Trump urges Supreme Court to revisit fight over billions in foreign aid

By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Monday to step back into the fight over billions of dollars in foreign aid his administration is attempting to cut, setting up a case that could address how much power the White House can wield in canceling congressionally approved spending.

At issue for the Supreme Court is $4 billion in foreign aid that was approved by Congress but that the Trump administration says no longer aligns with its priorities. The White House is mounting a multifront effort to cancel that spending both in the courts and on Capitol Hill.

The administration’s emergency appeal follows a divided decision from an appeals court in Washington, DC, last week that effectively required the State Department to spend $4 billion of that aid by the end of the month.

The administration described the lower court decisions as a “grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers,” according to the appeal.

“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,” US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court.

Grant recipients had sued over access to billions of dollars for global health and HIV/AIDS programs that were appropriated by Congress to be disbursed by the State Department and the now-essentially shuttered agency US Agency for International Development.

US District Judge Amir Ali ruled late Wednesday that the administration can’t withhold the money without congressional approval. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit declined to pause that ruling.

The administration told the Supreme Court that it intends to spend $6.5 billion of the foreign aid that was at issue in the case by September 30, but it wants the justices to allow it to withhold another $4 billion.

In late August, Trump alerted Congress that he intended to claw back that money using a rare “pocket rescission.” That move, which would effectively cancel the spending unless Congress considers the proposal, has complicated negotiations to avoid a government shutdown by the end of the month.

The Trump administration also asked the Supreme Court to issue an “administrative stay” that would freeze any action on the case for a few days while the justices consider arguments over the White House request. But the groups challenging Trump said in a filing Monday they oppose that move.

The groups argued that an administrative stay could effectively decide the case in the government’s favor, allowing the administration to run out the clock and never spend the money at issue.

“The government’s theory that the agencies need not comply with enacted legislation mandating that they spend funds, because the president has unilaterally proposed legislation to rescind those statutory mandates, would fundamentally upend our constitutional structure,” the groups told the court.

The case has made its way to the high court before. A divided Supreme Court in March rejected the Trump administration’s request to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid approved by Congress frozen. But the court did not immediately say then when the money must be released, allowing the White House to continue to dispute the issue in the lower courts.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to the report.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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