Congress
Justice Department asks Supreme Court to allow Trump to withhold foreign aid
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow the president to withhold billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated foreign aid before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal with the high court Tuesday, asking the justices to pause a federal district judge’s order that requires the administration to come up with a plan to lay out the money by the deadline next month.
Solicitor General John Sauer argued in the new filing that groups representing aid contractors have no legal basis to force such spending and that it’s up to Congress to challenge executive branch spending shortfalls under a 1974 law, the Impoundment Control Act.
“Congress did not upset the delicate interbranch balance by allowing for unlimited, unconstrained private suits,” Sauer wrote. “Any lingering dispute about the proper disposition of funds that the President seeks to rescind shortly before they expire should be left to the political branches, not effectively prejudged by the district court.”
While Sauer’s submission is framed as an argument to defer to Congress, he also makes clear that the administration believes Trump has authority to engage in so-called pocket recissions that would occur so late in the fiscal year that it would be impractical for Congress to reverse them.
It’s the latest escalation in Trump’s effort to wrest the power of the purse from Congress, one that has alarmed lower courts and rankled even some Republicans in Congress.
Trump and his budget architect Russell Vought have long sought to challenge the 1974 law, which establishes strict procedures when the president intends to cancel spending authorized by Congress. Though the president can briefly pause some spending, he must get congressional permission to cancel it altogether through a process known as “rescission.”
Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 2-1, that only Congress’ comptroller general — the leader of the Government Accountability Office — has the power to challenge allegedly unlawful impoundments by the president. Groups that rely on foreign aid funding and claim the right to sue over withheld grants are asking the full bench of the D.C. Circuit to reverse that conclusion, but the full court has not yet acted.
For now, an earlier order from U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in favor of the aid groups remains in effect. Ali, a Biden appointee, mandated formal obligation of the funds by the end of September. That order is presently due to be set aside unless the full D.C. Circuit steps in — but the Trump administration seems eager to get the issue in front of the Supreme Court quickly.
Sauer asked the justices to rule by Sept. 2 or to put in place a temporary order that the government need not comply with Ali’s directive.
An official with one of the groups challenging the funding holdbacks, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, said it wasn’t surprising that the administration is rushing the dispute to the high court.
“Time and again, this administration has shown their disdain for foreign assistance and a disregard for people’s lives in the United States and around the world. But even more broadly and dangerously, this administration’s actions further erodes Congress’s role and responsibility as an equal branch of government,” the coalition’s executive director, Mitchell Warren, said in a statement. “The question being put to SCOTUS is whether they will be complicit in further eroding the constitutional commitment to checks and balance.”
Carmen Paun contributed to this report.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.
The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.
The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.
“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”
Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.
He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,
Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.
Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.
“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.
Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.
Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”
Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.
Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.
“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”
Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday released text of legislation intended to ban the use of Flock surveillance cameras and other license plate readers.
Flock has faced severe public backlash against the surveillance technology following reports that police officers misused the technology to track women, and it has the largest network of license plate readers across the U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) hosted a hearing last month probing its potential misuses, although the company’s CEO Garrett Langley did not appear.
The latest bill, unveiled Friday and named the Ban Flock Act, would bar federal agencies from using automated license plate readers or accessing data from the technology and prevent federal grants from funding states and local governments that use automated license plate readers.
“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders, who has positioned himself as a leading progressive voice on AI technology, said in a statement. “We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”
Ocasio-Cortez similarly condemned the surveillance capabilities of the technology and said the bill would “enforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.”
“No one should have this unchecked surveillance power at their fingertips,” Merkley added.
Republicans have introduced similar efforts to regulate license plate readers, such as Hawley’s Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would require audits and limits on unauthorized searches.
Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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- October
- Sanders, AOC, Merkley propose bill to ban Flock cameras
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