Appeals court ruling will let Trump administration cut billions in foreign aid

The decision overrules a lower court's decision that had blocked USAID cuts.

A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court's ruling, clearing the way for the Trump administration to cut billions in foreign aid funding this year.

In a 2-1 decision Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overruled a lower court's decision that prohibited the Trump administration from making drastic cuts to USAID funding that had already approved by Congress.

The court sidestepped the substantive question of whether the cuts were constitutional, instead deciding that the nonprofits that sued the Trump administration lacked the standing to bring a case.

Judges Karen Henderson and Gregory Katsas -- appointed by Presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump, respectively -- determined that only the head of the Government Accountability Office has the authority to 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 claims," the majority wrote.

The lawsuit over USAID funding had been one of the first major legal successes for nonprofits challenging the Trump administration, which ordered the suspension of grants that didn't comply with the president's priorities.

After U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary restraining order in February blocking Trump's executive order from taking effect, both the D.C. circuit court and the United States Supreme Court sided with the nonprofits, denying a request from the Trump administration to block an order enforcing the TRO.

In a dissenting opinion issued with Wednesday's ruling, Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, criticized her colleagues for ignoring the concern that the funding cuts were unconstitutional and thus harmed "the rule of law and the very structure of our government."

"At bottom, the court's acquiescence in and facilitation of the Executive's unlawful behavior derails the 'carefully crafted system of checked and balanced power' that serves as the 'greatest security against tyranny -- the accumulation of excessive authority in a single Branch," she wrote.