Trump Asks Supreme Court to Keep Freeze on Expiring Foreign Aid

The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to leave in place a freeze on foreign assistance funding, a move that could mean at least some of the billions of dollars at stake in the legal fight will expire at the end of this month.

The emergency request to the justices on Monday follows a series of recent lower court losses for the administration. Late last week, a federal appeals court voted 2-1 to leave in place a Washington district judge’s order that requires the State Department and US Agency for International Development to commit to spending the aid, a process known as obligating.

At least $10.5 billion is set to expire at the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30 if agencies don’t at a minimum adopt plans for how to use it, according to the Justice Department’s filing to the Supreme Court. Government lawyers said the administration plans to obligate $6.5 billion before the deadline, making the injunction an “unnecessary nuisance,” but said that Trump should be allowed to proceed with efforts to claw back roughly $4 billion.

The nonprofits and businesses that sued immediately filed a response with the Supreme Court opposing even a brief pause of the lower court’s order given the fast-approaching deadline.

Read More: Trump Loses Latest Legal Round Over Billions in Foreign Aid

It’s the latest high stakes dispute to reach the high court over the power of President Donald Trump and executive branch officials to exercise greater control over how money approved by Congress is used. An order from the Supreme Court, even a short directive via the court’s emergency docket, could at a minimum signal how the court’s conservative majority is leaning on the merits of the fight.

The action last week from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit wasn’t a final ruling on the lawfulness of efforts by Trump and other US officials to cut off foreign aid dollars, which is part of a larger push by his administration to dismantle USAID and dramatically scale back US engagement abroad.

US District Judge Amir Ali ruledon Sept. 3 that the administration’s refusal to spend the aid likely violated a US law that governs how federal agencies make decisions. Ali, appointed by former President Joe Biden, previously halted the funding block under the Constitution’s separation-of-powers principles, but pivoted to other claims after a divided appeals court panel struck down that injunction.

Shortly before Ali’s decision came out, Trump asked Congress to claw back more than $4 billion in foreign aid set to expire this year, according to court filings. The Justice Department said in earlier court filings that it has “every intention of obligating” the expiring funds that Trump hasn’t proposed to Congress to pull back.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.