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Anonymous ID: 9bdee1 Feb. 15, 2019, 12:39 p.m. No.5194270   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>4472

How Congress and President Obama Made Trump’s Wall Possible

 

Throughout the 2016 election, Donald Trump campaigned for president on the promise that he would build a wall along the southern border. Six weeks after his election in November 2016, Congress overwhelmingly passed a statute—codified as 10 U.S.C § 284—that authorized the secretary of defense to support the “construction of roads and fences and installation of lighting to block drug smuggling corridors across international boundaries of the United States.” On Dec. 23, 2016, a month before leaving office, President Obama signed the 973-page bill into law without any objection to this provision.

 

Today, the Trump administration has invoked this express statutory delegation of authority to do what the statute says: “construct … fences … across international boundaries of the United States.” Specifically, the president identified up to $2.5 billion under the Department of Defense funds that were designated for counterdrug activities. This provision does not turn on the declaration of a national emergency pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 2808, which the president also invoked in a proclamation issued today. Critically, the White House stated that “these funding sources will be used sequentially and as needed.” The “emergency” funds may not be tapped till the other, less controversial funds are depleted. Plaintiffs may not have standing to challenge the diversion of “emergency” funds till those funds are in fact allocated. Through § 284, both Houses of Congress willingly gave President Trump a path to build at least part of the wall.

 

This episode illustrates how Congress has long ago relinquished its lawmaking powers.

 

https://www.lawfareblog.com/how-congress-and-president-obama-made-trumps-wall-possible