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Brief Argues Against Extreme Executive Overreach and Details How Freeze of
USAID Funds Have Harmed the States and Their Residents
BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a
group of 23 attorneys general opposing the Trump administration’s unlawful decision to
withhold billions of dollars of United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
funding for foreign aid programs.
In an amicus brief filed in Global Health Council, et. al v. Trump, the coalition of attorneys
general pushes back on the administration’s extraordinary assertion that it can unilaterally
withhold funds that Congress has appropriated based on its own policy judgments. The coalition
also details how the Administration’s termination of foreign aid funding has substantially harmed
the states by cutting off billions of dollars in funding for research grants and contracts that
flowed through USAID that benefitted United States farmers, universities, nonprofits, and small
businesses. The brief urges the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject the
Administration’s extraordinary view of executive power—a view that would diminish
Congress’s constitutional authority and risk substantial harm to the states and others.
“The Trump administration did not follow the proper process when it froze billions of dollars in
foreign aid that Congress approved,” said Attorney General Brown. “This unlawful
withholding of funds hurts Maryland organizations that serve immigrants and refugees and has
cost hundreds of Marylanders their jobs. We won’t stand by while the administration ignores the
law and harms workers and families.”
In January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing members of the Executive
Branch to freeze federal funding for foreign aid programs at USAID and the State Department.
This included halting funding for critical public health and humanitarian assistance projects that
were already in progress abroad, as well as funding for health and agricultural research that was
ongoing within the United States. A group of foreign aid nonprofits challenged the withholding
of these funds; a federal district court granted their request for a preliminary injunction and
ordered the Executive Branch agencies and officials to “make available for obligation the full
amount of funds that Congress appropriated for foreign assistance programs.”
In the brief, the coalition urges the appellate court to uphold the preliminary injunction. In doing
so, the attorneys general:
- Urge the court to reject the Administration’s contention that the Executive
Branch can unilaterally choose to withhold funds Congress has
appropriated. The Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the authority to
appropriate funds. Where Congress has appropriated funds for specific purposes, the
President does not have unilateral authority to, by executive order, refuse to spend
those funds.
- Argue that the unlawful freezing of foreign aid funds is actively harming
Maryland and the other states. By halting the flow of billions of dollars of funding
for foreign assistance programs, the President and other Executive Branch officials
have inflicted substantial harms on universities, farmers, nonprofits, and small
businesses. For example, the President’s unlawful actions threaten millions of dollars
allocated to Maryland universities and nonprofits.
Attorney General Brown is joined in filing the brief by the attorneys general of Arizona,
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‛i, Illinois, Maine,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North
Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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