In March, a federal judge imposed an injunction that blocked the Trump administration from canceling or withholding foreign aid funds disbursed through the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
On Wednesday, however, a federal appeals court ruled that the administration could proceed with the withholding of billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded foreign aid, according to the Daily Caller.
This is a significant win for President Donald Trump and his America First agenda, and a substantial defeat for the liberal organizations that seek to spread their particular values around the globe at taxpayers’ expense.
Foreign aid paused, r-evaluated
On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order that called for the “reevaluating and realigning” of U.S. foreign aid, given that the “industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values. They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
Thus, the new policy of the U.S. was that “no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
As such, the president ordered a 90-day pause and review on all foreign aid, with some exceptions, and left it up to the secretary of State and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to determine which foreign aid programs should be resumed, modified, or canceled.
Within days, the State Department under Secretary Marco Rubio announced the implementation of Trump’s order to pause and review all foreign aid funding on behalf of the American taxpayers, given that it “is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative.”
Rubio stated at that time, “Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?”
Lawsuit leads to injunction
Predictably, several organizations involved in the global disbursement of U.S. foreign aid quickly filed a lawsuit to challenge the president’s order and the secretary’s implementation on claims involving the Constitution, the Administrative Procedures Act, the Impoundment Control Act, as well as that the administration had exceeded its statutory authority, and D.C. District Judge Amir Ali, a Joe Biden appointee, dutifully issued an injunction in March that forced the administration to fully restore all of the frozen funds.
That decision was appealed, and on Wednesday, in a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court and vacated the injunction.
Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote for the majority, “The district court erred in granting that relief because the grantees lack a cause of action to press their claims. They may not bring a freestanding constitutional claim if the underlying alleged violation and claimed authority are statutory.”
“Nor do the grantees have a cause of action under the APA because APA review is precluded by the Impoundment Control Act (ICA). And the grantees may not reframe this fundamentally statutory dispute as an ultra vires claim either,” she added. “Instead, the Comptroller General may bring suit as authorized by the ICA. Accordingly, we vacate the part of the district court’s preliminary injunction involving impoundment.”
Decision puts president back in charge
In response to the appellate court’s ruling, an OMB spokesperson told the Daily Caller, “Radical left dark-money groups have been using the court system to seize control of U.S. foreign policy.”
“Today’s decision stops these private groups from maliciously interfering with the President’s ability to spend responsibly and administer foreign aid in a lawful manner and in alignment with his America First policies,” the spokesperson added.
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Author: Ben Marquis
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