Lawmakers fear that President Trump will use an expected national emergency declaration to redirect disaster funds toward a wall on the southern border.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday afternoon that the president would declare a national emergency to build the wall, in addition to signing government funding legislation that would include some money for fencing along the border.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders left open the possibility that Trump could redirect disaster aid toward the border wall.
“We are considering all of options that allow the president to secure the border and protect American citizens, nothing more to add at this point,” said Sanders in an email when asked by the Washington Examiner about the possibility.
Congress has appropriated billions in disaster aid that the administration has yet to disburse through either the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The possibility of redirecting a portion of that funding has come up in discussions at the White House as a way to pay for Trump’s border wall, a key campaign promise.
The funds in question include over tens of billions of dollars in disaster aid that Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas, and California have yet to receive. Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory that was buffeted by hurricanes in the fall of 2017, has over $20 billion in promised aid that it has yet to receive, for reasons that remain unclear.
When asked whether the president would try to transfer a portion of those funds toward his promised border wall with Mexico, Rep. Mark Meadows R-N.C., the chair of the House Freedom Caucus and a close Trump ally, said that redirecting disaster funds toward the border wall had been discussed but that he could not say what the president would do.
“I don’t want to say I don’t know, I don’t want to lie to you, I can’t say,” said Meadows, who earlier said he would not comment on personal conversations with the president.
Republican senators who met on Thursday afternoon were in the dark as to Trump’s plans but suggested they were wary of the possibility that he might divert disaster aid.
“That’s a concern,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. “I haven’t heard them say that, but that’s something I need to ask.”
Rubio added that it was his understanding that Trump could reprogram funds from funding for the Department of Homeland Security for the border wall.
Meadows suggested to reporters that Trump could use authority granted under the section of the law governing military action to redirect Army Corps of Engineering funds to border wall construction. Congress designated about $2.5 billion in funding toward an Army Corps project to aid with the damage that Puerto Rico’s electrical grid endured in late 2017. It took nearly a year for the entire U.S. territory to regain power, which contributed to an estimated death toll that mounted to nearly 3,000 American citizens.
The island also awaits federal relief funds authorized by Congress early last year, including a historically large amount of block grants to aid in housing reconstruction and hardening the electrical grid to prevent a similar extended blackout.
“I do support border security, but not at the expense of redirecting funds that were already allocated by Congress and approved by the president for disaster relief, specifically in the case of Puerto Rico,” said Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, Puerto Rico’s Republican nonvoting delegate, told the Washington Examiner. “If that’s the final situation, I will be fighting that.”
Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, also raised the alarm about the possibility Thursday.
Is it now Puerto Rico and California (American Citizens) that will pay for the wall? If this is the case, we’ll see you in court. https://t.co/KwDjEloXm2
— Ricardo Rossello (@ricardorossello) February 14, 2019
People with knowledge of the discussions said that Trump may suspend the Jones Act, a law that prevents some direct trade between Puerto Rico and countries that neighbor it in the Caribbean or in South America, as a way to soften the blow. The White House is also believed to have weighed pulling funds from two California-related disaster aid projects for the border wall. Whether Trump plans to do so remains unclear; any effort to pull funding from California projects would likely be fought by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who represents a central California district.
If Trump were to order the diversion of disaster funds for his border wall, it would almost certainly be challenged in court. Rossello, for one, has promised to sue.
Trump’s success in such a case would likely depend on which funds he attempted to transfer. Congress, not the president, has the constitutional authority to allocate funds for various projects, though Congress designated limited emergency authority to the president. Trump plans to draw on that power, but the buckets of money he can pull from for his wall would remain limited.
Congressional Democrats have also introduced legislation to prevent the funding diversion attempt, but it would have to pass the Republican-controlled Senate. Democrats attached similar language to earlier appropriations legislation during the government shutdown, but that was not taken up in the Senate.
“Like many of my colleagues in Congress, I was alarmed when it was reported that the Administration is mulling taking resources meant to help Puerto Ricans who are still suffering from Hurricane Maria and diverting those funds to pay for Donald Trump’s stupid, hateful border,” Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., author of the bill to prohibit recent disaster funding from going toward the wall, said in a statement. “Not only will those of us in Congress who care deeply about Puerto Rico oppose efforts to take disaster aid and spend it on a wall, but I expect my colleagues from across the country will oppose taking from other disaster relief funds, as well.”
