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Lawyers for the Trump administration have asked the Supreme Court to let the White House block billions of dollars in foreign aid spending that Congress had already approved. The Tuesday night filing, an emergency appeal, sends the question of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding to the high court for a second time in six months.

At issue is roughly $12 billion in aid appropriated for USAID. The money, which is supposed to be obligated before the end of the fiscal year on September 30, is already in the federal government’s budget. But shortly after returning to the Oval Office in January, Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office, instructing the federal government to pause nearly all foreign aid payments. The president had promised to “drain the swamp” of what he called “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

The order was quickly challenged in federal court, and in February, a U.S. District Judge Amir Ali of Washington, D.C. blocked the administration’s actions. The judge ruled that the White House must continue to release the money because it funds projects that Congress has already signed off on. His injunction called for the Trump administration to restart payments on billions of dollars of USAID grants.

The Trump administration has fought back, and earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit took up the case. In a 2-1 ruling, the court vacated Judge Ali’s injunction. In the decision, Judge Karen L. Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote for the majority that the plaintiffs in the case, a coalition of foreign aid groups that have been seeking to restore their grants, do not have enough legal standing to sue the administration. Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, said the plaintiffs lack a proper “cause of action” under what is known as the doctrine of impoundment.

The appeals court’s ruling was a victory for the Trump administration, but so far, it has not issued a formal mandate to enforce that ruling. The Trump administration has one week before the fiscal year ends on September 30 to force the issue before that date. With Judge Ali’s earlier order — and the payment schedule contained within that order — technically still in effect, the Trump administration is running out of time before it risks being forced to pay the full $12 billion.

The Trump administration, represented by U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, who filed the emergency request with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, has argued that if the court does not get involved, the federal government will be forced to “rapidly obligate some $12 billion in foreign-aid funds.” That must happen by the September 30 deadline.

Sauer wrote in the filing that “Congress did not upset the delicate interbranch balance by allowing for unlimited, unconstrained private suits.”

“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 have projects dependent on USAID funds, disagree with the administration’s position. Their argument, as stated in earlier court filings, is that the president does not have the power to block money that Congress has already appropriated. The case, according to the plaintiffs, is governed by both the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of the 1970s and the Administrative Procedure Act.

The ICA was originally passed in the 1970s in order to limit the power of the executive branch to make changes in federal spending that Congress had already authorized. But President Trump has moved to end the long-running legal battle over the funds, arguing that it was hampering his ability to manage the budget in a way that would meet his objectives. The administration had made that argument, to no avail, before when the Supreme Court ruled on the issue in a narrow 5-4 decision earlier this year.

But this time the administration is asking for an emergency injunction to block the funds for a limited time, until Congress has an opportunity to make up its own mind. That move, they say, will ensure that no taxpayer money is sent abroad without an appropriation. The question of how much leverage the president has over appropriated funds that Congress has already authorized — especially when there is an election looming — is one that the Supreme Court has been asked to consider before.

With billions of dollars at stake, the Justice Department and the foreign aid groups each filed motions with the high court on Tuesday asking for a resolution to the long-running case. Trump has been clear on what he wants, and with the fiscal year coming to an end, it is up to the Supreme Court to decide what to do.