A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from unilaterally cutting billions of dollars of foreign aid authorized by Congress that is set to expire at the end of September.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington ruled , opens new tab on Wednesday night that the administration remains under a duty to comply with appropriations laws unless Congress changes them and cannot choose not to spend roughly $4 billion of the $11.5 billion appropriated in 2024 set to expire on Sept. 30. Some funds from prior appropriations cycles also expire on Sept. 30.

The order, if it stands on appeal, would bar President Donald Trump from effectively bypassing Congress to cancel the funding as he sought to do last week through a so-called pocket rescission.

A pocket rescission is a maneuver in which a president submits a request to Congress to rescind previously approved funding toward the end of a fiscal year before lawmakers can within a mandatory 45-day window act upon the request, allowing it to go unspent.