President Donald Trump plans to declare a national emergency after Congress passed a government spending deal that provides further funding for border security. Speaking to NBC News, a Trump administration official confirmed that the president will announce around $8 billion for a border wall under executive actions, part of which will be an emergency declaration.
That figure includes $1.375 billion in the spending bill for fencing in Texas; $600 million from the Treasury Department’s drug forfeiture fund; $2.5 billion from a Defense Department drug interdiction program; and $3.5 billion from a military construction budget under an emergency declaration by the president.
The president will hold an event in the Rose Garden about the border at some time on Friday morning, the White House said.
“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,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
Democrats Would Take Legal Action
Trump plans to use a declaration of emergency to divert funding from multiple parts of the federal government to extend the border barrier, most notably the Defense Department, two senior administration officials and a congressional aide told NBC News.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in response that if Trump declares a national emergency, Democrats could consider legal action to stop him.
“That’s an option, and we’ll review our options,” Pelosi said. “But it’s important to note that when the president declares this emergency, first of all, it’s not an emergency. What’s happening at the border, it’s a humanitarian challenge to us. The president has tried to sell a bill of goods. But putting that aside, just in terms of the president making an end run around Congress, here he said let us respect what the committee will do, then walks away from it.”
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., released a joint statement after the White House announcement vowing to defend the constitutional separation of powers.
“Declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that President Trump broke his core promise to have Mexico pay for his wall,” their statement said.
Even some Republicans are not on board with the president decision. “I think it’s a dangerous step,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “One, because of the precedent it sets. Two, because the president is going to get sued and it won’t succeed in accomplishing his goal, and three, because I think Mrs. Pelosi will then introduce a resolution which will pass the House, then come over here and divide Republicans. So to me, it strikes me as not a good strategy.”
The bill that Trump is expected to sign, provides $1.375 billion for 55 miles of pedestrian and levee fencing in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, far short of Trump’s $5.7 billion request. It also would prohibit the use of a concrete wall or other Trump prototypes and specify that only “existing technologies” for fencing and barriers could be used.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who helped negotiate the deal, said he had told Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that the bill should be viewed as a “down payment” to fund border security.
President Trump has long taken an “only I can fix this approach” to crisis politics, and in this case, he seems to be ready willing and able to strike unilaterally to ensure his most quintessential campaign promise, and “build that wall!”
