Aug. 13 (UPI) — Non-profits that sued President Donald Trump’s administration over U.S. Agency for International Development cuts were told they don’t have legal standing, clearing the way for the administration to cut billions in foreign aid.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit overruled a lower court’s decision that banned the Trump administration from making drastic cuts to USAID funding that had already been approved by Congress. The decision was 2-1.
The court didn’t address whether the cuts were constitutional.
Judges Karen Henderson and Gregory Katsas, who were appointed by presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump, respectively, said that only the head of the Government Accountability Office, in the legislative branch, can sue under the Impoundment Control Act.
“The district court erred in granting that relief because the grantees lack a cause of action to press their claim. They may not bring a freestanding constitutional claim if the underlying alleged violation and claimed authority are statutory,” Henderson wrote.
The win in the lower court was one of the first big successes by non-profits suing the administration.
The ruling will make it much harder for outside entities that don’t already have contracts with the government to dispute the president’s decisions, even though Congress has power of the purse.
The decision allows Trump to continue with his cuts of foreign aid grants.
U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pan, appointed by President Joe Biden, dissented.
“The majority holds that when the President refuses to spend funds appropriated by Congress based on policy disagreements, that is merely a statutory violation and raises no constitutional alarm bells,” Pan wrote.
Pan called the decision “as startling as it is erroneous,” writing that it latches onto a legal argument the administration hadn’t fully developed.
“My colleagues in the majority excuse the government’s forfeiture of what they perceive to be a key argument, and then rule in the President’s favor on that ground, thus departing from procedural norms that are designed to safeguard the court’s impartiality and independence,” Pan wrote.
On his first day in office, Trump ordered USAID to freeze foreign aid payments, which led to litigation that reached the Supreme Court. The administration has also laid off most of the staff of USAID.
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