Supreme Court weighs pocket rescission over frozen foreign aid funds

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to keep roughly 4 billion to 4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid frozen while the high court considers an appeal, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Tuesday temporarily paused a lower court order that had required the funds to be spent by the end of the fiscal year. The emergency filing and the administrative stay set up a likely Supreme Court showdown over a rarely used presidential maneuver known as a pocket rescission and the wider question of executive authority over federal spending.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali last week ruled that the administration had given no lawful justification to withhold the funds and ordered the government to allow payments to flow. President Donald Trump notified House Speaker Mike Johnson on Aug. 28 that he would not spend about 4.9 billion in foreign assistance, invoking a pocket rescission that asks Congress near the end of the fiscal year to cancel appropriations before lawmakers have the required 45 days to act. Ali said only Congress can effect a rescission and that the administration’s withholding was likely unlawful.