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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