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A Federal Court of Appeal governs Trump administration can retain $ 4 billion approved by the congress for global health programs and more than $ 6 billion for HIV and AIDS prevention.
Ben Curtis / AP
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Ben Curtis / AP
A federal court of appeal presented Trump a victory to President Trump on Wednesday. The court ruled that the administration can continue to freeze or terminate billions of dollars that Congress had intended for foreign aid expenses.
During a vote of 2 to 1, a jury of the American Court of Appeal of the Columbia District Circuit said that the complainants in the case, a group of international aid groups, did not have the legal position to bring legal action.
Foreign Aid Freeze was an action that the president took his first day in power in January.
The money in question includes nearly $ 4 billion for global health programs until September and more than $ 6 billion for HIV and AIDS programs until 2028.
President Trump called on foreign assistance expenses to programs that attack disease epidemics and “useless” foreign poverty. The administration has dismantled the American agency for international development which supervised and managed around $ 30 billion a year in global health and development programs.
A group of international aid groups that were recipient of foreign aid subsidies continued the administration on February 10 and, in March, the American district judge Amir Ali published a preliminary injunction against the freezing of funding, saying that the administration had illegally frozen funds allocated by the Congress.
Wednesday’s decision canceled the preliminary injunction of the lower court, but the panel of judges did not decide whether the dismissals of the funds affected by the congress were constitutional.
“The beneficiaries did not meet the requirements of a preliminary injunction in any case,” wrote Judge Karen Lecraft Henderson, appointed by George Hw Bush. She was joined by judge Gregory G. Katsas, a named against Trump.
Judge Florence Pan, who was appointed by Joe Biden, wrote the dissenting opinion.
“The court judge that the beneficiaries have no constitutional cause of action are as surprising as it is wrong,” wrote Pan. “The majority argues that when the president refuses to spend funds allocated by the congress on the basis of political disagreements, it is simply a statutory violation and does not raise any ringing of constitutional alarm.”
In a press release, Mitchell Warren, executive director of AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) – one of the aid groups of the trial contesting the freeze – condemned the decision.
“Many and many times, this administration has shown their disdain for foreign aid and a contempt for people’s lives in the United States and in the world. More broadly, this decision, which we will appeal as far as possible, further erodes the role and responsibility of the congress as equal branch of the government, and majority opinion makes the court accomplice,” said Warren.
