A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign aid to recipients and contractors for work completed through Feb. 13, and it issued a March 14 deadline to show the court how it plans to do so.
Judge Amir Ali of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order Monday arguing that the Trump administration was “unlawfully impounding congressionally appropriated foreign aid funds” through some of its proposed cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“The Executive not only claims his constitutional authority to determine how to spend appropriated funds but usurps Congress’s exclusive authority to dictate whether the funds should be spent in the first place,” Ali said.
He added, “In advancing this position, Defendants offer an unbridled view of Executive power that the Supreme Court has consistently…
