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The Trump administration on Tuesday night asked the Supreme Court to let it block billions in foreign aid spending approved by Congress. The request, an emergency appeal, was filed late Tuesday night and would return the fight over U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding to the high court for the second time in six months.

Nearing $12 billion in aid set aside for USAID, the funds would be required to be spent by September 30, when the current fiscal year ends. President Donald Trump was quick to act, however, on his return to office in January by signing an executive order on day one that instructed the federal government to block nearly all foreign aid spending. The president said at the time the order was part of a broad effort to root out “waste, fraud, and abuse” in overseas spending.

The order was immediately challenged in court. In February, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, D.C., put a stop to the Trump administration’s efforts. The White House, according to the ruling, must continue to release the money for projects Congress had previously approved. Trump’s Justice Department was then ordered to restart payments on billions of dollars in USAID grants.

The Trump administration did not go quietly. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard the case again this month and ruled, in a 2-1 decision, that it would vacate Judge Ali’s injunction. Writing for the majority, George H.W. Bush appointee Judge Karen L. Henderson said that the plaintiffs in the case — foreign aid groups that have sought to have their grant payments restored — could not establish the necessary standing to sue the Trump administration. Judge Henderson wrote in the opinion that plaintiffs lacked a proper “cause of action” under what’s known as the doctrine of impoundment.

The decision at the appeals court, while a clear victory for the Trump administration, has not been made official, however. The court has not yet issued a formal mandate to put its ruling in place, a move that has allowed Judge Ali’s previous order and the payment schedule it attached to remain in effect. As a result, the Trump administration is now scrambling to try and avoid being forced to disburse $12 billion before the fiscal year ends on September 30.

Emergency Request Filed in Supreme Court

In a filing with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said that without action from the justices, the government will be forced to “rapidly obligate some $12 billion in foreign-aid funds” before September 30. He also argued that the underlying dispute is not appropriate for federal courts to resolve.

“Congress did not upset the delicate interbranch balance by allowing for unlimited, unconstrained private suits,” Sauer wrote in his filing. He also stated that “any lingering dispute about the proper disposition of funds that the President seeks to rescind shortly before they expire should be left to the political branches, not effectively prejudged by the district court.”

The plaintiffs in the case — a group of foreign aid organizations that rely on USAID funding for a variety of international projects — hold a diametrically opposite view. They say that the president cannot unilaterally cancel funding that Congress had already appropriated. In their case, the plaintiffs point to the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), a 1970s law designed to rein in executive discretion over federal spending. They also say the Administrative Procedure Act is a critical statutory basis for their claims.

If the Trump administration wins its fight, it will represent a significant power-grab for a president hoping to strengthen his hand over budgeting decisions that had previously been firmly within Congress’s purview. If the plaintiffs are victorious, it could further check executive discretion in how congressionally appropriated funds are spent.

The Supreme Court has previously taken up the same dispute, ruling narrowly, 5-4, in favor of the Trump administration earlier this year. That decision was later vacated when the appeals court decided to rehear the case. With billions of dollars in foreign aid spending and the fiscal year rapidly coming to a close, the justices will once again be called on to wade into the high-stakes fight.

For Trump, the case is just the latest in a series of moves to reshape U.S. spending priorities and take more control over foreign assistance programs. For the foreign aid organizations involved in the litigation, the stakes could not be higher. If they lose their fight for funding, projects already underway in nations around the world could be cut or eliminated.

While the decision from the appeals court is still in partial limbo, and with the administration requesting urgent relief, the Supreme Court’s handling of the latest emergency request could determine not just the fate of $12 billion in foreign aid, but also set a precedent for the limits of presidential power over congressionally appropriated funds.