Trump Foreign Aid Block Stopped as Billions Set to Expire (2)

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 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.

The Justice Department notified Ali on Thursday that it is appealing and is expected to 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.

“President Trump has the executive authority to ensure that all foreign aid is accountable to taxpayers and aligns with the America First priorities people voted for,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “This will not be the final say on the issue.”

Read More: Appeals Court Keeps Fight Alive Over Trump Foreign Aid Block

The Justice Department previously said in court filings that it needed clarity from the courts about what it must do with the money by Sept. 2 in order to have enough time to plan, negotiate with foreign governments and meet deadlines to notify Congress. Ali wrote that if the administration had concerns about being able to comply with his ruling in time, he could separately issue an order extending the Sept. 30 deadline.

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.

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 maneuver to circumvent lawmakers’ authority going forward, Bloomberg News previously reported.

Ali pushed back on the government’s claim that he was serving as a “monitor” of US spending, writing that it was still up to the executive branch to decide how the money should be used.

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).

(Updated with White House comment in fifth paragraph.)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net;
Robert Burnson in San Francisco at rburnson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.