Trump foreign aid block stopped again as billions set to expire

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Trump foreign aid block stopped again as billions set to expire

9:09 CAT | 04 Sep 2025

File photo: Reuters

A Washington federal judge has barred the Trump administration from unilaterally cutting roughly $12 billion in US foreign assistance funding that Congress approved and is poised to expire at the end of this month.

US District Judge Amir Ali ruled Wednesday that the administration’s refusal to spend the aid likely violated a US law that governs how federal agencies make decisions. He previously halted the funding block under the Constitution’s separation-of-powers principles, but pivoted to other claims after a divided appeals court panel struck down that injunction.

The Justice Department is expected to immediately appeal and quickly take the fight to the US Supreme Court if it continues to lose. Absent a court ruling, the money will no longer be available after Sept. 30 if the State Department and what’s left of the US Agency for International Development don’t at least commit to spending plans, a process known as obligating.

Nonprofit organizations and businesses are suing to compel the Trump administration to spend approximately $30 billion in foreign aid appropriated by Congress in past years. The fight has narrowed in recent weeks to focus on funding that Congress approved in 2024 legislation that is at risk of expiring before the case is fully over. The plaintiffs can continue to press claims related to the rest of the money at stake.

The administration has “given no justification to displace the bedrock expectation that Congress’s appropriations must be followed,” Ali wrote, concluding that the defunding decisions violate the Administrative Procedure Act.

Ali’s decision came shortly after President Donald Trump asked Congress to claw back more than $4 billion in foreign aid set to expire this year, including $3.2 billion from the 2024 appropriations law covered by the latest ruling.

Trump’s move, known as a “pocket rescission,” is timed to potentially allow him to avoid spending the money if Congress doesn’t take action by the end of September and is widely seen as a test of his ability to use the manoeuvre to circumvent lawmakers’ authority going forward, Bloomberg News previously reported.

The White House didn’t immediately respond outside regular business hours to an emailed request for comment.

The cases are Global Health Council v. Trump, 25-cv-402, and Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. Department of State, 25-cv-400, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington, DC).

Source: Bloomberg