Overview

• The ruling stays a lower-court order that had required immediate disbursement of funds for State Department and USAID programs.
• Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the three liberal justices, warned the move undercuts Congress’s constitutional control over federal spending.
• The contested appropriations are set to lapse on September 30 at the end of the fiscal year, raising the stakes of the continued hold.
• The administration has notified Congress it intends to reprogram about $1.8 billion toward national-security priorities, according to a notice reported by Reuters.
• The freeze stems from an end-of-year budget tactic the GAO has deemed unlawful, which spurred lawsuits from aid organizations challenging the policy.