WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump on Friday committed $8 billion on border barriers during a scattershot Rose Garden news conference moments after he signed an order declaring a national emergency over what he considers a national and humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. The president’s action is certain to be immediately met by court challenges, but Trump expressed confidence he will prevail.
The emergency declaration allows Trump to bypass Congress to spend more money to erect barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump said using his emergency powers protects the country against drug dealers and illegal immigrants.
During the news conference, Trump told stories, without providing evidence, of horrific abuse of women being smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border. He also said the border wall would be needed to battel drug cartels as part of a “virtual invasion” from Mexico.
Using his executive authority allows Trump to tap other sources to get to the total of $8 billion, inlcuding accounts in the Treasury and Defense departments. Money previously earmarked for disaster relief in hurricane-ravaged Texas and Puerto Rico won’t be tapped, Trump said.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says Trump will tap various other sources of money beyond the nearly $1.4 billion in a government funding bill that Congress passed. Trump said he plans to sign the bill.
Besides the money from Congress, Mulvaney said Friday that Trump plans to spend $600 million in Treasury forfeiture funds and $2.5 billion in Defense Department counterdrug money. Trump is also tapping about $3.6 billion worth of funds set aside for military construction projects.
Congress approved a spending bill that offers only about $1.4 billion of the $5.7 billion he requested for the border barrier.
Congress approved a border security compromise to avoid a second painful government shutdown — 83-16 in the Senate with solid bipartisan support, and 300-128 in the House. House Democrats overwhelmingly backed the legislation, with only 19 — most of whom were Hispanic — opposed. Just over half of Republicans voted “no.”
The margin in both chambers was enough that even if Trump does change his mind on keeping the government open, there are enough votes to get the two-thirds majorities needed to override presidential vetoes. Sometimes, however, lawmakers rally behind presidents of the same party in such battles.
A new confrontation has been ignited over the president’s plan to bypass lawmakers and declare a national emergency and sipon billions of dollars from other federal coffers to pay for a key 2016 campaign promise — a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
The White House said Trump would sign the legislation but act unilaterally to get more, prompting condemnations from Democrats and threats of lawsuits from states and others who might lose federal money or said Trump was abusing his authority.
The uproar over Trump’s next move cast an uncertain shadow over what had been a rare display of bipartisanship to address the grinding battle between the White House and lawmakers over border security.
Trump is expected to announce that he will be spending roughly $8 billion on border barriers — combining the money approved by Congress with funding he plans to repurpose through executive actions, including a national emergency, said a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The money is expected to come from funds targeted for military construction and counterdrug efforts.
Lawmakers were relieved the agreement would avert a fresh closure of federal agencies just three weeks after a record-setting 35-day partial shutdown that drew an unambiguous thumbs-down from the public. But in announcing that Trump would sign the accord, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also said he’d take “other executive action, including a national emergency,”
In an unusual joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said such a declaration would be “a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract” from Trump’s failure to force Mexico to pay for the wall, as he’s promised for years.
“Congress will defend our constitutional authorities,” they said. They declined to say whether that meant lawsuits or votes on resolutions to prevent Trump from unilaterally shifting money to wall-building, with aides saying they’d wait to see what he does.
Democratic state attorneys general said they’d consider legal action to block Trump. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello told the president on Twitter “we’ll see you in court” if he makes the declaration.
Despite widespread opposition in Congress to proclaiming an emergency, including by some Republicans, Trump is under pressure to act unilaterally to soothe his conservative base and avoid looking like he’s lost his wall battle.
The abrupt announcement of Trump’s plans came late in an afternoon of rumblings that the volatile president — who’d strongly hinted he’d sign the agreement but wasn’t definitive — was shifting toward rejecting it. That would have infused fresh chaos into a fight both parties are desperate to leave behind, a thought that drove some lawmakers to ask heavenly help.
“Let’s all pray that the president will have wisdom to sign the bill so the government doesn’t shut down,” Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said Thursday’s Senate session opened.
Moments before Sanders spoke at the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to announce Trump’s decisions to sign the bill and declare an emergency. In a surprising development, McConnell said he would support Trump’s emergency declaration, a turnabout for the Kentucky Republican, who like many lawmakers had opposed such action.
Democrats say there is no border crisis and Trump would be using a declaration simply to sidestep Congress. Some Republicans warn that future Democratic presidents could use his precedent to force spending on their own priorities, like gun control. GOP critics included Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who said emergency declarations are for “major natural disasters or catastrophic events” and said its use would be of “dubious constitutionality.”
White House staff and congressional Republicans have said that besides an emergency, Trump might assert other authorities that could conceivably put him within reach of billions of dollars. The money could come from funds targeted for military construction, disaster relief and counterdrug efforts.
Congressional aides say there is $21 billion for military construction that Trump could use if he declares a national emergency. By law, the money must be used to support U.S. armed forces, they say. The Defense Department declined to provide details on available money.
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Reporting from The Associated Press
Photo: President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall along the southern border, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)