(Washington) Trump administration asked the United States Supreme Court on Monday to freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid.
The heart of the legal dispute concerns nearly 5 billion US of aid approved by the Congress, which the president said last month that he would not spend, invoking a contested authority, which was lastly invoked by a president about 50 years ago.
Last week, the American district judge Amir Ali ruled that the decision of the republican administration to suspend funding was probably illegal.
Trump told the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, in a letter of August 28, that he would not spend US 4.9 billion of foreign aid approved by the Congress, thus reducing the budget without going through the legislative power.
He used what is called a “pocket rescision”. This is a request made by a president to the congress, towards the end of the current budgetary financial year, not to spend the approved funds. This late notice prevents the congress from following the request within the time required of 45 days and the funds remain unused.
Judge Ali said Congress should approve the cancellation proposal so that the administration can retain the funds.
The law stipulates “explicitly that it is the action of the congress-and not the transmission of a special message by the president-which triggers the cancellation of previous credits,” he wrote.
The Administration seized the Supreme Court after a panel of federal appeal judges refused to block the decision of the district judge.
The lawyers of the Department of Justice told a federal judge last month that additional US..5 billion in assistance, previously frozen, would be spent before the fiscal year, on September 30.
The case has been underway in court for months.
The non -profit organizations that pursued the government said that the freezing of funding was breaking federal law and had ended the financing of the most urgent humanitarian programs abroad.
