DC Circuit rulings on foreign aid funds and EPA climate grants

This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued two decisions that together allow the Trump administration to continue withholding billions of dollars authorized by Congress for foreign and climate-related programs while preserving narrow legal paths for challengers. One action on Thursday left in place an appeals panel ruling that permits the administration to keep foreign aid funds frozen, and a separate three-judge panel on Tuesday overturned a lower court order that had blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from rescinding roughly $20 billion in climate grants.

In the foreign aid dispute, the full D.C. Circuit declined to rehear en banc a fight over billions set aside by Congress for overseas assistance, effectively leaving the panel judgment intact for now. The court released a revised version of the panel's order that preserved the panel’s view that challenges under the Impoundment Control Act are generally for the Government Accountability Office, but left a narrower door open for nonprofits and contractors to press an Administrative Procedure Act claim in district court. Judge Brad Garcia, a Biden appointee, wrote that the revised...