Trump to declare emergency
Congress steamed toward lopsided approval of a border security compromise yesterday that would avert a second painful government shutdown but ignite a major new confrontation – this time over President Donald Trump’s plan to bypass lawmakers and declare a national emergency to siphon billions from other federal coffers for his wall on the Mexican boundary.
Wall money in the bill, about US$1.4 billion (NZ$2b), is far below the US$5.7b Trump has insisted he must have. The White House said he would sign the legislation but then act on his own to get the rest, a move sure to lead to immediate efforts in court and elsewhere to block him.
The Senate passed the legislation 83-16 yesterday with both parties solidly on board. House passage was assured, with Trump’s signature coming today.
Lawmakers expressed relief that the agreement had averted a fresh closure of federal agencies, just three weeks after a recordsetting 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 would take ‘‘other executive action, including a national emergency’’ – prompting immediate condemnation from Democrats and threats of legal action from states that might lose federal money.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer 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.
Pelosi and Schumer also said that ‘‘Congress will defend our constitutional authorities’’. 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 would wait to see what he did.
Several Democratic state attorneys-general said they would look at legal action to block Trump. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello told the president on Twitter ‘‘we’ll see you in court’’ if he went through with the declaration.
The bipartisan pact provides enough money to build just 88 kilometres of barricades in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley – well short of the billions Trump has demanded to construct 300-plus kilometres as a down payment for an even longer and larger wall.
The uproar over what Trump would do next cast an uncertain shadow over what had been a rare display of bipartisanship in Congress to address the grinding battle between the White House and lawmakers over border security.
The abrupt announcement of Trump’s plans came late in an afternoon of rumblings that the volatile president – who had strongly hinted that he would sign the agreement, but never definitively – was shifting towards 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 seek heavenly help.
‘‘Let’s all pray that the president will have wisdom to sign the bill so the government doesn’t shut down,’’ Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grasslet said after a chaplain opened yesterday’s Senate session.
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.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, who is close to McConnell, said there were two hours of phone calls between McConnell and the White House before there were assurances that Trump would sign.
In a surprising development, McConnell said he would support Trump’s emergency declaration – a turnabout for the Kentucky Republican, who like many lawmakers had until now opposed such action.
White House aides 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.
That money could come from funds targeted for military construction, disaster relief and antidrug efforts.
Congressional aides say there is $21b in military construction money that could potentially be used by Trump if he declares a national emergency. But according to the law, the money has to be used in support of US armed forces, they say.
The Defence Department has declined to provide any details on available money.
Democrats say there is no crisis at the border and Trump is merely sidestepping Congress. And some Republicans warn that future Democratic presidents could use his precedent to force spending on their own priorities, such as gun control.