Posted on 02/15/2019 1:18:19 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
President Trump declared a national emergency on the southern border Friday, saying he’ll defy Congress to divert about $6.5 billion in unspent federal funds to build more border walls that lawmakers have refused to authorize.
“We’re going to confront the national security crisis at our southern border,” the president said. “We’re talking about an invasion of our country.”
He called the declaration “a great thing to do.”
In a Rose Garden event, the president signed a spending bill to keep the government open, a measure that provides nearly $1.4 billion for border barriers.
But after months of bitter debate with Democrats and a 35-day government shutdown over border security, Mr. Trump said the bill doesn’t go far enough to address the crisis of illegal immigration and drug smuggling on the border with Mexico. The deal includes a record $23 billion for border security measures.
“It’s so much money, I don’t know what to do with it,” the president said. “But on the wall, they skimped.”
Democrats said the president undercut his own argument about an emergency when he declared, “I could do the wall over a longer period of time, I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it faster. I want to get it done faster, that’s all.”
In a surprising admission, the president acknowledged that he should have tried to get more wall funding when Republicans controlled the House during the first two years of his presidency.
“I was a little new to the job … some people didn’t step up,” he said, an apparent reference to former Republican Speaker Paul D. Ryan. “I’m learning.”
He said other presidents have signed national emergency declarations dozens of times “for far less important things.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Mr. Trump also signed a bipartisan spending bill that will keep the government
funded through the fall and allocates $1.38 billion for 55 miles of border
barriers—far less than the $5.7 billion the president had asked for.
Unsatisfied with the amount set aside by Congress for barriers, Mr. Trump
plans to also draw roughly $6.7 billion from military and other sources,
without the approval of Congress. The move was likely to draw immediate
court challenges.
The “media” gleefully announced last week that there was a new “caravan” leaving Honduras with 50,000 riders. If that isn’t a national emergency, I don’t know what the hell is.
Over/under they all get in (will be 100K by the time it gets here).
I’m betting they all get in.
Unt Now, Ve Vait
Do the do.s have a big enough welcome center for that many invaders..I mean guests.
Trump needs to station LARGE numbers of troops on the border in the interim.
Someone explain why he finds it necessary to declare an “emergency” and engage in confrontation with certified fools. He has and has always had the constitutional power to simply order the Army Corp of Engineers to build a wall/security barrier along the southern border. He does not even have to state a reason!
“Someone explain why he finds it necessary to declare an “emergency” and engage in confrontation with certified fools.“
Ok,
Because the plan calls for showing the American Public who their real enemies are, by actually getting them to show us themselves.
Do.s = DIMS
In 1976, Congress enacted the National Emergency Act in its burst of post-Watergate reforms designed to restrict presidential power. While the new law terminated most existing emergencies, it did not set out any definition of a national emergency or limit the president’s ability to declare one...Congress has passed at least two laws that give the president the power to transfer funds to a construction project, such as a wall, after a declaration of emergency. The first, Section 2808 of Title 10 states that:
In the event of a declaration of war or the declaration by the President of a national emergency in accordance with the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) that requires use of the armed forces, the Secretary of Defense, without regard to any other provision of law, may undertake military construction projects, and may authorize the Secretaries of the military departments to undertake military construction projects, not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces. Such projects may be undertaken only within the total amount of funds that have been appropriated for military construction, including funds appropriated for family housing, that have not been obligated.The second law involved here is Section 2293 of Title 33 of the U.S. Code. That law allows the secretary of defense to reallocate funds from military construction projects:
In the event of a declaration of war or a declaration by the President of a national emergency in accordance with the National Emergencies Act [50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.] that requires or may require use of the Armed Forces, the Secretary, without regard to any other provision of law, may (1) terminate or defer the construction, operation, maintenance, or repair of any Department of the Army civil works project that he deems not essential to the national defense, and (2) apply the resources of the Department of the Army’s civil works program, including funds, personnel, and equipment, to construct or assist in the construction, operation, maintenance, and repair of authorized civil works, military construction, and civil defense projects that are essential to the national defense.This statute appears even more generous than Section 2808. It does not demand that a national emergency require the use of the U.S. Armed Forces; it allows that an emergency that “requires or may require” their use will do. It also does not require that the construction be necessary to support the armed forces. Instead, it requires that (a) the civil works, military construction, or civil defense project be “authorized”; and (b) the project be “essential to the national defense.”
do.s = DIMS
bfl
They use large hotels/apartment complexes for overage.
It’s one reason illegals are big business and have a lot of supporters. Fedgov pays good money to those apartment complex owners for the priviledge of putting illegals there.
“He has and has always had the constitutional power to simply order the Army Corp of Engineers to build a wall/security barrier along the southern border”
Why do people keep posting this like a) no one ever explored it and b) that is how it works?
Did anyone ever see TR just “order” construction of battleships?
Liberal judges who overrule him will say, this problem existed long before you took office. You have deportation procedures in place. No emergency. Why did you do nothing for 2 years if it is an emergency.
Thanks. Don’t care how, just build the wall and the American people will rally behind Trump and those who had the wisdom to support him.
And dozens of a different kind of caravan is forming up...
Except its construction equipment, personnel, and materials.
All organized ahead of time and waiting for the signal.
Time to build the wall!
I fear only 45% to 55% of the American people will rally to his cause. The decades of liberal propagandization of generations of American school kids with “one world”and “kumbaya” is our doom.
It also does not require that the construction be necessary to support the armed forces. Instead, it requires that (a) the civil works, military construction, or civil defense project be “authorized”; and (b) the project be “essential to the national defense.”
Note that previous acts have authorized border walls and this appropriation bill appropriates monies to the construction of barrier walls. The person who determines that the work is essential to the national defense would be the President of the United States. Check and checkmate. Certainly we will see some tribal dancing, some animal sacrificing and lots of pagan incantations along with another platoon of District Federal Judges who will rant and rave, but in the end, the money will flow and work will be done.
And, in my opinion, this is not going to take a year, or two. It will be done in weeks or months and no more than a few months.
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