Coming Soon In USA: ‘The Wall’ And An Order Declaring ‘National Emergency’
Though US President Donald Trump will sign the spending bills passed by both the Houses of Congress that will keep the government open for the next few months, he is expected to declare a “national emergency” to seek more border-wall funding, reports Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The White House has stated that Trump will speak on the US border security situation on Friday (15 February) at 10 PM (IST 8:30 AM, 16 February).
The seven approved spending bills, running to the tune of $333 billion also include $1.38 billion in funding for 55 new miles of physical barriers along US’s southern border.
However, the new wall funding is less than the $5.7 billion that Trump had asked for but more substantial than the one-dollar proposal Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi had put forward in the last government shutdown.
Disagreements over border wall funding between the President and the Democrats led to the longest five-week government shutdown in US’ history between December 2018 and January 2019.
Democrats To Challenge
Declaration of emergency would allow the President to divert funds meant for military-construction or US Army Corps of Engineers funding to build the wall. Constructing a physical barrier along the southern border to prevent illegal migrants from entering the country was one of the major poll promises made by Trump during his election campaign.
However, Democrats have stated that they would challenge any such declaration to divert funds without congressional approval and could also possibly file a lawsuit against it.