Judge Stops Trump’s Sneaky Scheme to Strip Foreign Aid
A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s shaded attempt to recover funds thanks to a rare legal move called a pocket termination, ordering the president to thaw billions of dollars in foreign aid.
The judge of the American district court, Amir Ali, judged on Wednesday that if the Trump administration has kept “significant discretion” on how the funds were to be spent, he had no power on the advisability of spending or not the nearly $ 5 billion in funds that had already been allocated.
Last week, Trump wrote at Congress asking for $ 4.9 billion in approved funding for international aid efforts, including $ 3.2 billion in development aid from the US Agency for International Development.
The Congress then had 45 days to decide to approve it from Trump’s request, but the White House management and budget office said that it could freeze the funds until the end of the financial year on September 30, guaranteeing the cancellation of funds.
Trump had already bypassed the congress to dismantle the USAID, and now he planned to start again.
But the judge wrote that the congress should approve the termination, because the law was “explained that it is an action of the congress – not the transmission by the president of a special message – which triggers the cancellation of previous credits”.
Ali has made his decision by saying that this would probably not be the last word in the case, and that “the final directives of the Superior Court will now be instructive”.
