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Sunday, February 17, 2019

US President Donald Trump declares a national emergency to build border wall Friday Feb 15,2019


On Friday Feb 15,2019, US President Donald Trump invoked his power to declare a national emergency in a unilateral effort to make progress on the border wall Congress has thus far denied him. 

US President Donald Trump initially demanded $5 billion for the construction of about 200 miles of barrier at the border, and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly refused to go anywhere near that figure. He got about $1.3 billion for border fencing in the deal he finally agreed to, a far cry from the desired amount. So he’s going with a national emergency to get more. 

“We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border, and we’re going to do it, one way or another, we have to do it,” he said in a speech at the White House Rose Garden on Friday Feb 15,2019


US President Donald Trump will try to cobble together funds from a number of areas and redirect them toward border wall construction. White House officials ahead of the announcement on Friday said he would redirect about $600 million from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, an account funded by money seized by the US government; $2.5 billion from the Department of Defense’s counter-drug activities; and $3.6 billion from other military construction accounts. Trump won’t try to take anything from disaster relief.

Note

Many presidents have declared national emergencies, including George W. Bush after 9/11 and Barack Obama during the swine flu outbreak in 2009. Before Trump’s declaration,there were 31 National Emergencies active  in the US — his marks the 32nd. 

In recent history, presidents have declared national emergencies under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, which lets them issue emergency declarations under specific constraints. Basically, Trump can only use specific powers Congress has already codified in law, and he has to say which powers he’s using.


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