Supreme Court Allows Administration to Flout Congress’s Power of the Purse
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Supreme Court granted the administration’s request for a stay of an injunction that would have required the administration to obligate $4 billion of foreign assistance funds, as required by appropriations laws enacted by Congress, before those funds expire on September 30. As a result of the ruling, those funds, which otherwise would have served vulnerable communities throughout the world, will remain unspent.
Nicolas Sansone, attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group and counsel for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition plaintiffs, issued the following statement in response.
“Today’s ruling allows the administration to unilaterally refuse to spend $4 billion in foreign assistance funds that it is required by law to spend. This result further erodes separation of powers principles that are fundamental to our constitutional order. It will also have a grave humanitarian impact.”
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, also commented:
“This decision effectively ratifies the unconstitutional, humanitarian disaster of the Trump administration’s foreign assistance cancellation policy. Experts estimate that cruel policy has already cost 350,000 lives.
“The Supreme Court’s shadow docket decision is an invitation to the Trump administration to continue its authoritarian policy of illegal impoundments and recissions. It thus underscores the importance of Congress reasserting its constitutional authority.
“There’s no logic in agreeing to an appropriations deal if the Trump administration can treat it as a package of recommendations it is free to ignore. Future funding bills must include guarantees that appropriated funds will actually be spent, as Congressional Democrats are now demanding.”