WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen.
The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved aid that President Donald Trump last month said he would not spend, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that the Republican administration’s decision to withhold the funding was likely illegal.
Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter on Aug. 28 that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.
He used what’s known as a pocket rescission. That's when a president submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to not spend the approved money. The late notice means Congress cannot act on the request in the required 45-day window and the money goes unspent.
Ali said Congress would have to approve the rescission proposal for the Trump administration to withhold the money. The law is “explicit that it is congressional action — not the President’s transmission of a special message — that triggers rescission of the earlier appropriations,” he wrote.
The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to the deficit and possible damage to America’s reputation abroad as foreign populations lose access to food supplies and development programs. The administration turned to the high court after a panel of federal appellate judges declined to block Ali’s ruling.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the ruling “an unlawful injunction that precipitates an unnecessary emergency and needless interbranch conflict.” He urged the justices to immediately block it.
But lawyers for the nonprofit organizations that sued the government said it's the funding freeze that violates federal law, noting that it has shut down funding for even the most urgent lifesaving programs abroad.
“This marks the third time in this case alone that the Administration has run to the Supreme Court in a supposed emergency posture to seek relief from circumstances of its own making — this time to defend the illegal tactic of a ‘pocket rescission,’" attorney Lauren Bateman of Public Citizen Litigation Group, lead counsel for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition plaintiffs, said in a statement. "The Administration is effectively asking the Supreme Court to bless its attempt to unlawfully accumulate power.”
Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid that had been subject to the freeze would be spent before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The case has been winding its way through the courts for months, and Ali said he understood that his ruling would not be the last word on the matter.
“This case raises questions of immense legal and practical importance, including whether there is any avenue to test the executive branch’s decision not to spend congressionally appropriated funds,” he wrote.
In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out an earlier injunction Ali had issued to require that the money be spent. But the three-judge panel did not shut down the lawsuit.
After Trump issued his rescission notice, the plaintiffs returned to Ali's court and the judge issued the order that's now being challenged.
Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.
President Donald Trump speaks at a hearing of the Religious Liberty Commission at the Museum of the Bible, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks to the White House Religious Liberty Commission during an event at the Museum of the Bible, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday loosened federal rules that require grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to reduce greenhouse gases used in cooling equipment, a step President Donald Trump said would help lower grocery costs.
Trump, at a White House ceremony, said the action by the Environmental Protection Agency would “substantially lower costs for consumers” by delaying costly restrictions that limit the type of refrigerants U.S. businesses and families can use.
The move to relax the Biden-era rules on harmful pollutants known as HFCs emitted by refrigerators and other appliances was the latest attempt by the Trump administration to try to address rising voter concerns over the cost of living ahead of pivotal elections in November.
It is not clear how much or how quickly the loosening of the refrigerant rule might impact grocery prices. Industry groups said the move could even raise prices because manufacturers have already redesigned products, retooled factories and trained workers to build and service next-generation refrigerant equipment.
Inflation in the United States increased to 3.8% annually in April, amid price spikes caused by the Iran war and President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Inflation is now outpacing wage gains as the war has kept oil and gasoline prices high.
The Biden-era regulation was “unnecessary and costly and actually makes the machinery worse,” Trump said at a ceremony joined by top executives from Kroger, Piggly Wiggly and other grocery chains. The EPA action will protect hundreds of thousands of jobs and save Americans more than $2 billion a year, he said.
The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, which represents more than 330 HVAC manufacturers and commercial refrigeration companies, said the change in approach would “inject uncertainty across the market” and could even raise prices.
“This rule works against basic supply and demand,” said Stephen Yurek, the group’s president and CEO. “By extending the compliance deadline” for phasing out hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, the administration “is maintaining and even increasing demand in the market for existing refrigerants while supply continues to fall.”
Manufacturers have already retooled product lines and certified models based on the existing timeline, Yurek said. Nearly 90% of residential and light commercial air conditioning systems use substitute refrigerants, rather than HFCs, he said.
The administration's action on refrigerants represents a reversal after Trump signed a law in his first term that aimed to reduce harmful, planet-warming pollutants emitted by refrigerators and air conditioners. That bipartisan measure brought environmentalists and major business groups into rare alignment on the contentious issue of climate change and won praise across the political spectrum.
The 2020 law reflected a broad bipartisan consensus on the need to quickly phase out domestic use of HFCs, greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide and are considered a major driver of global warming.
The EPA action highlights the second Trump administration’s drive to roll back regulations perceived as climate friendly. The plan is among a series of sweeping environmental changes that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has said will put a “dagger through the heart of climate change religion.”
Environmentalists criticized the administration’s actions, saying the new rule would exacerbate climate pollution while disrupting a yearslong industry transition to new coolants as an alternative to HFCs.
The 2020 law signed by Trump, known as the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, phased out HFCs as part of an international agreement on ozone pollution. The law accelerated an industry shift to alternative refrigerants that use less harmful chemicals and are widely available.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Chemistry Council, the top lobbying group for the chemical industry, were among numerous business groups that supported the law and an international deal on pollutants, known as the Kigali Amendment, as victories for jobs and the environment. U.S. companies such as Chemours and Honeywell developed and produce the alternative refrigerants sold in the United States and around the world.
The 2023 rule now being relaxed imposed steep restrictions on HFCs starting in 2026. Zeldin said the rule from the Democratic Biden administration did not give companies enough time to comply and that the rapid switch to other refrigerants caused shortages and price increases last year. Some in the industry dispute this.
The Food Industry Association, which represents grocery stores and suppliers, applauded the Trump EPA proposal last year, saying the earlier rule “imposed significant and unrealistic compliance timelines.”
Kevin McDaniel, Piggly Wiggly franchise owner, speaks during an event with President Donald Trump about loosening a federal refrigerant rule, in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Kroger CEO Greg Foran speaks speaks during an event with President Donald Trump about loosening a federal refrigerant rule, in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, listens as President Donald Trump speaks during an event about loosening a federal refrigerant rule, in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event about loosening a federal refrigerant rule, in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - A shop owner reaches into a drink display refrigerator at his convenience store in Kent, Wash., Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
