Is the national emergency just a head fake for another way of getting funds.

Funds can be got without declaring a national emergency

The White House is firming up plans to redirect unspent federal dollars as a way of funding President Donald Trump’s border wall without taking the dramatic step of invoking a national emergency.

Done by executive order, this plan would allow the White House to shift money from different budgetary accounts without congressional approval, circumventing Democrats who refuse to give Trump anything like the $5.7 billion he has demanded. Nor would it require a controversial emergency declaration.

The emerging consensus among acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and top budget officials is to shift money from two Army Corps of Engineers’ flood control projects in Northern California, as well as from disaster relief funds intended for California and Puerto Rico. The plan will also tap unspent Department of Defense funds for military construction, like family housing or infrastructure for military bases, according to three sources familiar with the negotiations.

“There are certain sums of money that are available to the president, to any president,” Mulvaney said on “Meet the Press” Sunday. “So you comb through the law at the president's request … And there's pots of money where presidents, all presidents, have access to without a national emergency.”

But the strategy is far from a cure-all for a president with no good options, and it has already sparked debate within the White House. Moving funds by executive order is virtually certain to draw instant court challenges, with opponents, including some powerful members of Congress, arguing the president is encroaching on the legislative branch’s constitutional power to appropriate funds.

Some Trump officials, including those aligned with senior adviser Stephen Miller, have argued internally that the gambit might be even more vulnerable to court challenges than a national emergency declaration. And in a sign of the political fallout, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee has argued that tapping military construction money would hurt the armed forces’ potential readiness.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/11/mick-mulvaney-border-wall-funds-1163996

>>5179624

>Martha MacCallum

McCallum is not dirty

>>5179674

He does it by executive order.

I am wondering if it is one of the pens we have already seen a pic of.

>>5179779

>Mulvaney

Even if Trump decides that the legal obstacles of an executive order are less daunting that those that would come with a national emergency declaration, tapping unspent funds intended for disaster relief and military construction would bring serious political and policy risks.

By diverting disaster money intended for heavily Democratic California and Puerto Rico — instead of staunchly Republican Texas, which is still rebuilding after Hurricane Harvey — Trump opens himself up to criticism that he’s favoring red states over blue ones. Both of Texas’ GOP senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, have made clear their opposition to reprogramming any Harvey relief funds.

Redirecting the military funds by fiat is also more complicated than it might sound, in part because Pentagon spending typically happens slowly over long time frames.

“Given the priority this is associated with, I imagine a lot of the red tape will be expedited, but it doesn’t mean it can happen overnight,” said John Conger, a former senior Obama-era Pentagon official. “Military construction is a five-year appropriation for a reason, because these projects take a long time. Military construction is not a speedy process.”

January 30, 2019

Nonpartisan Congressional Research Service says Trump can build wall without an appropriation or declaring an emergency

By Thomas Lifson

Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/nonpartisan_congressional_research_service_says_trump_can_build_wall_emwithoutem_an_appropriation_emorem_declaring_an_emergency.html#ixzz5fYyESeTg

>>5180104

>>5180104

The Congressional Research Service is a think-tank that always is called "nonpartisan" because it serves the entire Congress. I have to wonder if there will be any blowback for a report that it just produced that strengthens President Trump's hand against the House Democrats. Paul Bedard reports in the Examiner (hat tip: Helen Smith):

Unable to nudge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., any closer to approving funding for a border wall, President Trump can move on his own without declaring a national emergency, according to a nonpartisan congressional report.

The Congressional Research Service, Capitol Hill's think tank, is highlighting laws for Trump to tap that would not be subject to Congress' "termination provison."

The CRS "legal sidebar" outlines alternative paths for the president, who has been considering tapping the National Emergencies Act.