1st lawsuits targeting foreign aid freeze bemoan ‘chaos’ in Trump order

(WASHINGTON) — In a pair of lawsuits filed over the past 24 hours, several nonprofit groups that rely on government funds to provide healthcare and other services abroad are accusing the Trump administration of failing to disperse congressionally approved funds by freezing all foreign aid for 90 days.

One suit, brought by the American Bar Association on behalf of several nongovernment aid groups, claimed that President Donald Trump’s aid freeze amounts to an “unlawful and unconstitutional exercise of executive power that has created chaos” around the globe, according to the lawsuit brought Tuesday morning by the ABA.

The lawsuit alleged the foreign aid freeze is unlawful, exceeds Trump’s authority as president and is causing havoc.

“One cannot overstate the impact of that unlawful course of conduct: on businesses large and small forced to shut down their programs and let employees go; on hungry children across the globe who will go without; on populations around the world facing deadly disease; and on our constitutional order,” the ABA said in the filing.

The plaintiffs allege that Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day in office and titled “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” violated federal laws governing the administration of executive agencies and overstepped Trump’s authority as president.

“Neither the President nor his subordinates have authority to thwart duly enacted statutes and substitute their own funding preferences for those Congress has expressed through legislation,” the lawsuit said.

“One cannot overstate the impact of that unlawful course of conduct,” the ABA said in the suit. “On businesses large and small forced to shut down their programs and let employees go; on hungry children across the globe who will go without; on populations around the world facing deadly disease; and on our constitutional order.”

In a separate suit brought late Monday by the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen on behalf of the healthcare nonprofit AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, the plaintiffs claimed that Trump’s executive order has affected “millions across the world” who rely on lifesaving HIV/AIDS medication backed by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

AVAC said in the suit that it has already had to lay off several members of its staff, which threatens to cripple its ability to operate even if its funding return.

“So when Defendants promise to ‘decide to continue [some] program[s] in the same or modified form’ … it is clear they have not grappled with the reality that those programs may not be able to be revived,” the suit claimed.

Both suits cited the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which makes it difficult for a president to try to avoid spending money allocated by the legislative branch. Both suits requested the courts intervene to reinstate the federal funding and issue temporary restraining orders on Trump’s foreign aid freeze.

ABC News’ Karen Faulders, Peter Charalambous, Will Steakin and Ben Siegel contributed to this report.

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