U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily allowed the Trump administration to freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid as the Supreme Court considers the president's emergency appeal.

The temporary, administrative stay puts on hold a lower court's ruling directing the administration to spend some $4 billion in funds Congress approved for aid programs worldwide by the end of the month.

Roberts issued the temporary order because he handles emergency appeals arising from the nation’s capital by default.

It comes after the Justice Department filed an emergency application at the high court, contending that the lower court’s injunction would force the administration to obligate those funds at “breakneck speed” to meet the Sept. 30 deadline — even as it has asked Congress to rescind them.  

One of Trump's first acts back in the White House was pausing about $30 billion in foreign aid. The move prompted swift legal action from global health and aid groups that said the funds are vital to humanitarian efforts and Trump exceeded his authority in halting them.

An estimated $10.5 billion of the total $30 billion at stake is set to expire on Sept. 30, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the government’s application, but the government planned to obligate $6.5 billion of those funds by the deadline.

That left the roughly $4 billion, which Sauer said spending would run contrary to U.S. foreign policy. Last month, Trump notified Congress he would move to cancel the aid using a rare “pocket rescission.”  

Trump asked Congress to cancel the funds under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), and while lawmakers consider that request, the administration may withhold the funds for 45 days. The funds must be released if lawmakers reject the request.

The Trump administration argued to the Supreme Court that U.S. District Judge Amir Ali's preliminary injunction would force the release of those funds. 

Roberts's temporary order, which contained no explanation and does not necessarily indicate how the court will decide the case, only pauses the lower court's order regarding the funds subject to Trump's Aug. 28 recission proposal to Congress.

The plaintiffs opposed an administrative stay. He directed them to respond to the Trump administration's application by Friday afternoon.