In a 6-3 vote last Friday, the United States Supreme Court has granted the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to withhold nearly $4 billion in foreign aid funds appropriated by Congress.

The ruling by the conservative majority of the court permits the White House to withhold the funds through a pocket rescission under the Impoundment Control Act.

The move also permanently stays a lower court’s order by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali who had ruled that the administration’s freezing of the funds was likely illegal and that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding.

The lower court ruling had been temporarily blocked by Chief Justice John Roberts on Sept. 9 after a federal appeals court had declined to put Ali’s ruling on hold.

A tweet from the Department of State celebrated the ruling as a win for the president’s America First foreign policy and for Secretary of State Marco Rubio and lauded the administration’s efforts to rein in what it called, “wasteful, woke, and weaponized foreign assistance and international organization spending.”

A pocket rescission is a rarely-used tactic in which a president submits a request to Congress to not spend the money near the end of the budget year.

According to the Associated Press, under federal law, Congress has to approve the rescission within 45 days or the money must be spent.

With the end of the budget year approaching on Sept. 30, there is little likelihood that Congress could act within the specified timeframe.

In its ruling, the majority noted that the president’s authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision, although it also cautioned that litigation over the president’s cancellation may continue in the months ahead with the issue possibly returning to the Supreme Court at a later date.

The Trump administration has made cutting back on wasteful government spending one of its top priorities, including deep reductions to foreign aid programs for HIV/AIDS prevention, humanitarian aid, and development in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.