AP Explains: Can Trump declare emergency to build his wall? on WTOP| WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency and take other executive action to allow construction of the president’s long-promised southern border wall, after bipartisan…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency and take other executive action to allow construction of the president’s long-promised southern border wall, after bipartisan congressional negotiations provided less than a quarter of the $5.7 billion Trump wanted to start building more than 200 miles of wall.
There is less than $1.4 billion in the budget deal the Senate approved Thursday — with House passage expected later in the day — enough for just 55 miles of new barriers and fencing.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump would sign the bill and take “other executive action, including a national emergency.” The declaration would allow Trump to deliver “on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country,” Sanders said. Other executive action could allow Trump to tap other pots of money without the emergency declaration.
Declaring a national emergency at the southern border would prompt a legal fight that would test the powers of all three branches of government. Here’s what we know:
WHY AN EMERGENCY DECLARATION?
The administration has spent months trying to figure out how the president might be able to move forward with the wall — the central promise of his 2016 campaign — if Congress refuses to give him the money.
As early as last March, Trump was publicly floating the idea of using the military for the task. “Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!” he tweeted then.
But it’s Congress — not the president — that controls the country’s purse strings and must appropriate money he wants to spend.
