The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TOP NATIONAL STORY Trump to declare emergency for wall
Move likely to face court, congressional challenges; president will sign spending bill, avoid shutdown.
Peter Baker and Emily Cochrane WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to declare a national emergency so he can bypass Congress and build his long-promised wall along the border even as he signs a spend- ing bill that does not fund it, the White House said Thursday.
The announcement of his decision came just minutes before the Senate voted 83-16 to advance the spending package. The House later followed suit, sending the legislation to Trump’s desk.
In opting to declare a national emergency, Trump would seek to access funds for the wall that Congress had not explicitly authorized for the purpose, a move that would test the bounds of presidential authority in a time of divided government.
Legal experts have said Trump has a plausible case that he can take such action under current law, but it would almost surely
prompt a court challenge from critics arguing that he is usurping two centuries of congressional control over spending.
Trump’s decision to sign the legislation effectively ends a two-month dispute between the president and Congress that closed much of the federal government for 35 days and left it facing a second shutdown as early as today.
“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,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said Democrats were “reviewing our options” in responding to Trump’s anticipated declaration and did not rule out a legal challenge.
“The president is doing an end run around Congress,” she said.
She also raised the possibility that Trump was setting a precedent for Democratic presidents to come, precisely what Republicans fear.
The spending legislation includes the seven remaining bills to keep the remainder of the government open through the end of September. House and Senate negotiators unveiled the 1,159-page bill Wednesday just before midnight, leaving little time for lawmakers to study its contents.
“The president is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country,” Sanders said, as she announced Trump would sign it.
The border security compromise, tucked into the $49 billion portion of the bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security, provides $1.375 billion for 55 miles of steel-post fencing, essentially the same plan that Trump rejected in December, triggering the shutdown and less than the $5.7 billion he demanded for more than 200 miles of steel or concrete wall.
Trump disregarded objections about the emergency declaration that were raised by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, and other Republicans. Conservative lawmakers and commentators said such a move would set a precedent for a future president to claim the same power to take action on issues like climate change or gun control without congressional consent.
But Trump ultimately could not see any other way out of his standoff with congressional Democrats over the border wall without shutting down the government again.
Democrats immediately prepared to advance legislation that would curtail the president’s abilities to use certain funds after a national emergency declaration.
A group of Democratic senators — including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, all aspiring presidential nominees — collaborated on a measure to prevent Trump from using funds appropriated for disaster relief to pay for border wall construction.
Trump made the wall his signature promise on the 2016 presidential campaign trail, where he was cheered by supporters chanting, “Build the wall,” only to be frustrated that he was unable to do so during his first two years in office, when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress.
In waging a shutdown battle over the barrier, he has made it the nearly singular focus of his presidency in his third year in office. But Democrats, who took control of the House in January, have made blocking it just as high of a priority, leaving the two sides at a stalemate.
Negotiations since late December ultimately went nowhere. Pelosi, who led Democrats to power in the House, went beyond simply criticizing the wall as unwise or ineffective by declaring it “immoral,” drawing a hard line even though many Democrats have voted for fencing along parts of the border in the past.
At one point during the shutdown, Trump asked Pelosi if she would be willing to support the wall in 30 days if he agreed to reopen the government. When she said no, he got up and walked out of the room with a sharp “bye-bye,” then posted a message on Twitter declaring the talks a “waste of time.”