MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We've reported extensively on how President Trump has spent his first five weeks in office trying to expand executive power.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah, his attempt to slash the federal workforce has drawn various lawsuits trying to stop him. Two cases that have just arrived at the Supreme Court could offer some early clues on whether his methods will hold up. They involve some $2 billion in unpaid bills.
MARTIN: NPR's Frank Langfitt has been tracking the matter. He's with us now. Good morning, Frank.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Hey, good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So we've been covering these cases at NPR. They are about the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. Just remind us of the details.
LANGFITT: Yeah, Trump officials at USAID, you remember, they cut off funding to thousands of aid recipients. This began January 20 when Trump took office. And the idea was they were going to review contracts to see if they were aligned with Trump's America First agenda. Now, this hit these organizations incredibly hard. They had to furlough people. Some are at the risk of going bankrupt, and so they ended up suing to get paid. Now, a lower court ordered the government to pay up and gave a deadline. Still, the government would not pay. And on Wednesday night, the Trump administration was about to blow through this deadline. So it appeals to the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice John Roberts, he pauses the case, hands the government a temporary victory. And naturally, that got a lot of attention.
MARTIN: So those are the details. Everybody wants to get paid what they are owed. But are there bigger stakes here, and if so, what are they?
LANGFITT: Yeah, definitely. There - you know, these are among the first cases in front of the Supreme Court that involve the president's attempts to expand executive power, like you were just saying. And after all, in these cases, the government had effectively refused to pay money that Congress had already appropriated, and the government clearly owes and that this judge had told it to pay. And the government says in one of its filings that it thinks the lower court exceeded its authority in doing that. And so people are watching very closely now to see how the Supreme Court responds to all of this.
MARTIN: What do legal analysts make of this case?
LANGFITT: You know, Michel, they point out that people's interest really perked up with the Supreme Court's initial ruling in favor of the government. And now, the court, of course, its got a conservative supermajority. Trump appointed three of those justices.
Now, Stephen Vladeck, he's a law professor at Georgetown. He's an expert on federal law, and he was writing about this in his Substack. And he thinks Roberts, you know, may have just been trying to give the justices some time to make a reasoned decision rather than one right up against the clock. And Vladeck says at a superficial level, quote, "it's obvious" to him that the government should ultimately lose these cases. And that's because the government's, you know, not allowed to just not spend money appropriated by Congress. As we said, I think, often on these shows, on the U.S. system of government, Congress has the power of the purse. However, Trump says, you know, he wants to change the law so that the president can impound money approved by Congress.
MARTIN: So what is the government telling the court right now?
LANGFITT: Yeah, the government says - its actually changed its tune a little bit. It says it is committed now to paying what it owes, but it needs to do what it's calling a payment integrity review to make sure that all these invoices are legitimate. But remember, you know, the government did unilaterally halt these payments, and it could have restarted them at any time.
MARTIN: Where's this headed next?
LANGFITT: Yeah, the plaintiffs have to file a response to the government today. Legal scholars think the justices are going to move quickly to try to resolve the case, because, you know, almost none of these aid organizations have been paid. It's been five weeks, and every day, their financial situations are only getting a lot worse.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Frank Langfitt. Frank, thank you.
LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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