The Trump government has to release billions of dollars from the Congress, including money, including money that President Donald Trump would not spend last week, a federal judge.
The US district judge Amir Ali in Washington decided on Wednesday that the decision by the Republican administration to hold the financing was probably illegal. He provided an injunction in which the publication of 11.5 billion US dollars was ordered, which should run at the end of the month.
“In order to be clear that nobody denies that the accused have a significant discretion of how the funds in question should be issued, and the court does not indicate that the accused will make payments to certain recipients,” wrote Ali, who was nominated by the democratic President Joe Biden. “But the accused have no discretion whether they should spend the funds.”
The administration submitted an appeal on Thursday.
“President Trump has the executive authority to ensure that all foreign aid is responsible for taxpayers and match the first priorities of America for whom people voted,” said the spokesman for the White House, Anna Kelly.
Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, President and CEO of the Global Health Council, one of the groups in this case, said in a statement that the decision was a victory for “rule of law” and confirmed that “only the congress controls the power of the wallet”.
Trump said House spokesman Mike Johnson, R-La., In a letter on August 28, that he would not spend $ 4.9 billion for foreign assistance approved by the Congress, which effectively reduces the budget without going through the legislative.
He used a so -called pocket intake. At this point, a president submitted an application to the congress towards the end of a current budget year not to spend the approved money. The overdue announcement means that the congress cannot act on the request in the required 45-day window and the money is not spent. It is the first time in almost 50 years that a president used tactics. The financial year will end at the end of September.
Ali said that the congress had to approve the resignation proposal for the administration in order to hold the money back.
The law is “clear that it is congress measures – not the transfer of a special message by the president – which triggers the withdrawal of the previous means,” he wrote.
The money in question comprises almost 4 billion US dollars for the US Agency for International Development or USA to issue for global health programs and more than 6 billion US dollars for HIV and AIDS programs. Trump has presented the financing as a wasteful expenditure that does not match its foreign policy goals, and in January he issued an executive regulation that the Foreign Ministry was leading, and USAI to freeze expenses for foreign assist.
Non -profit organizations that sued the government said that the Freeze had concluded financing for urgent life -saving programs abroad.
A divided court committee judge decided last month that the administration could suspend the money. The judges later revised this statement and revived the lawsuit in front of Ali.
In his decision, Ali said that he understood that his decision would not be the last word in the case, and added that “final instructions for higher court would now be instructive”.
“This case raises questions of immense legal and practical importance, including the question of whether there is a way to test the decision of the executive, not to spend congress appropriated,” he wrote.
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Associated Press Writer Thalia Beaty in New York contributed to this report.
