UPDATE FROM PUBLIC CITIZEN ON THEIR LAWSUITS AGAINST TRUMP REGARDING FOREIGN AID.
We have major news to share on one of Public Citizen’s 18 (so far) lawsuits against the Trump regime.
Last week, a federal court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s refusal to carry out foreign assistance spending required by law. In other words, the court told the regime that it must go forward with congressionally enacted funding, which will otherwise expire at the end of this month.
However — yesterday morning — the administration went running to the Supreme Court and asked the justices to suspend the injunction so that it can keep refusing to commit the funding and allow it to expire.
Remember, of the three branches of the federal government, it is the legislative branch (i.e. Congress) that has the constitutional authority to decide how to spend taxpayer dollars. This is commonly known as the “power of the purse.” But the Trump regime — in flagrant violation of the Constitution and 236 years of precedent — is openly trying to usurp that power by refusing to commit funding as required by laws enacted by Congress.
As Lauren Bateman, a member of Public Citizen’s legal team and the lead lawyer on this case, told the national media about the preliminary injunction: “The order emphatically rejects the administration’s argument that following appropriations laws is optional. The court’s rejection of the president’s attempt to unilaterally impound billions of dollars of foreign assistance funds is a critical victory for the rule of law.”
A few notes about foreign assistance:
Polls reveal that many Americans think foreign aid accounts for 25% or even 50% of all federal spending and that they would prefer it to be something like 10% instead. In reality, only about 1% of the federal budget — just one penny out of every dollar — goes to foreign aid.
With that relatively modest expenditure, American aid helps millions and millions of people all across the world who are facing famine and malnutrition, illness and disease, oppression, disaster, and death.
We are the richest country on Earth. But in 2023, there were 24 other countries that gave more, as a percentage of their gross national income, in development aid than the United States did. Yet it seems that Donald Trump won’t be happy until America is dead last on that list.
MORE ABOUT TAKING THE TRUMP REGIME TO COURT
The Trump administration is unilaterally, unconstitutionally, and unlawfully dismantling the federal government — our government — from Cabinet-level departments that have their own stately buildings here in Washington, D.C., to smaller agencies that go largely unnoticed as they do the routine, unheralded work that makes for a functioning country.
Public Citizen is doing everything we can — within our modest means — to fight back at every turn. It’s David and Goliath for sure, but we will never back down. Even where we haven’t (yet) notched definitive victories in court, we are slowing down the regime and making it work a lot harder in pursuit of its desire for absolute power.
This foreign assistance case is just one of the 18 lawsuits we have filed (so far) against the administration since Trump returned to power. Are these lawsuits alone enough to fully defeat Trump and MAGA? Of course not. But are they a meaningful part of the pushback needed to collectively save our country? No doubt about it.
- Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen