National emergency to build border wall, Cost US$7 billion if Trump declares
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency that will pave the way for him to bypass Congress and get funding from other parts of the government budget to build a border wall, even as he plans to sign a border security and spending deal on Friday (Feb 15).
His decision was announced by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor on Thursday and confirmed by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders in a separate statement.
“President Trump will sign the government funding Bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action – including a national emergency – to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border,” said Ms Sanders.
A White House official told Bloomberg Mr Trump plans to unilaterally shift nearly US$7 billion in federal funds to build the wall, a manoeuvre that risks provoking a lengthy legal battle over presidential powers.
The President will invoke an emergency declaration to redirect some of the funds and ordinary executive authority to tap other money, all of which has been approved by Congress for other purposes, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was quoted as saying.
The additional funding would come on top of US$1.375 billion for 55 miles of border fencing contained in a spending measure Trump is poised to sign on Friday, bringing the total above US$8 billion.
Hours after Mrs Sander’s announcement on the emergency declaration, the House of Representatives approved the bipartisan border security Bill and sent it to Mr Trump. The Bill includes new barriers for part of the US-Mexico border but not the US$5.7 billion the President sought.
The Democratic-run House backed the measure, a spending Bill providing over US$300 billion for several government departments and agencies, 300 to 128. It passed the Senate earlier on Thursday.
The emergency declaration, should Mr Trump carry it out, will prevent a second bruising government shutdown but set the President and Congress up for further clashes down the road. The political move, which Mr Trump has threatened but so far avoided over the past few weeks, could be costly.
Democrat leaders signalled they would move to block Mr Trump, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi telling reporters they were weighing the legal option of challenging Mr Trump’s declaration of a national emergency as unconstitutional in court.
“This is not an emergency, and the President’s fearmongering doesn’t make it one,” said Mrs Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer in a joint statement. “He’s trying an end-run around Congress in a desperate attempt to put taxpayers on the hook for it. The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities.”
Mrs Pelosi added: “If the president can declare an emergency on something he has created as an emergency — an illusion that he wants to convey — just think what a president with a different set of values can present to the American people.”
The Democrats, who control the House, could also pass a resolution to end the national emergency and force the Republican-controlled Senate to vote on whether to do so.
National emergencies are not rare in American politics and not always contentious – 58 have been declared by both Republican and Democrat presidents since 1976. Immediate past president Barack Obama declared 13, and since assuming office, Mr Trump himself already declared three international affairs-related emergencies which slapped sanctions on foreign actors from Myanmar, Russia and Nicaragua.
The move would put Republicans in a bind by effectively forcing them to back an unpopular policy that could hurt them at the ballot box or oppose a president from their own party.
A CBS News poll released on Feb 3 and conducted just after the shutdown ended in late January found that 66 per cent of Americans overall thought Mr Trump should not declare a national emergency to pay for a wall, although 73 per cent of Republicans thought he should.
Reuters cited a source familiar with the situation as saying that the White House had identified US$2.7 billion in funds previously provided by Congress that could be redirected to barrier funding as part of a national emergency.
The source said White House lawyers had vetted the figures and believed they would withstand a legal challenge.
The Senate had passed the federal spending legislation by a margin of 83-16. The House was expected to take it up later on Thursday. The measure would provide more than US$300 billion to fund the Department of Homeland Security and a range of other agencies through Sept 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
The legislation includes US$1.37 billion in new money to help build 90km of new physical border barriers. That is the same level of funding Congress appropriated for border security measures last year, including barriers but not concrete walls.
Funding for those agencies is due to expire on Friday, which would trigger another partial federal shutdown on Saturday morning if Congress and Mr Trump do not act quickly.
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