Judge orders Trump administration to release billions of dollars of foreign aid approved by Congress | Trump administration

this Trump administration Billions of dollars of foreign aid approved by Congress must be released, including Donald Trump A federal judge has ordered that he would not spend money last week.

Washington’s U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali ruled Wednesday that the Republican administration’s move could be illegal and issued a preliminary injunction ordering the release of $11.5 billion, which will expire at the end of this month.

“To be clear, no one disputes the defendants have significant discretion in how the funds are paid in a disputed situation, and the court has not directed the defendant to pay to any particular recipient,” wrote Ali, Joe Biden’s nominee. “But the defendants have no discretion on whether to spend the funds.”

News to the White House and the State Department was not immediately returned. The government filed a notice of appeal on Thursday.

Trump told Mike JohnsonSpeaker of the House, in a letter dated August 28, he will not spend it $4.9 billion in Congress-approved foreign aidIn fact, budget cuts are cut without passing the legislative branch.

He used the so-called pocket evacuation. At that time, the president submitted a request to Congress at the end of the current budget year to not spend approved money. The late notification means Congress It is impossible to act as required in the required 45-day window, so this money is insufficient due to the financial year being drawn at the end of September. This is the first time the president has used the strategy in nearly 50 years.

Ali said Congress must approve the revocation of the government’s proposal to withhold the money.

The law, he wrote, was “clearly showing that it was a Congressional action, not a special message spread by the president – triggering the revocation of early appropriations”.

Controversial funds include nearly $4 billion from the U.S. International Development Agency for more than $6 billion for global health programs, HIV and AIDS programs. Trump portrayed the money as a wasteful spending that was inconsistent with his foreign policy goals and issued an executive order in January directing the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to freeze spending on foreign aid.

A split Court of Appeals judge last month ruled that the government could suspend the money. The judge later revised the opinion and resumed the lawsuit in Aliqian.

Ali said in the ruling that he knew his decision was not the last sentence in the case, adding that “now, higher court guidance will be beneficial”.

“The case raises huge questions of legal and practical importance, including whether there is any way to test the executive’s decision not to spend the funds allocated to Congress,” he wrote.