National Emergencies Act

Congress passed a spending bill on Thursday with a veto-proof majority, sending the bill the president’s desk. Trump signaled he will declare a national emergency to build the wall.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) released a statement on Thursday, saying he “fully” supports President Donald J. Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build the wall, citing Congress’s inability to protect Americans and secure the border.

The White House should be extremely cautious in studying every single word in Congress’s spending bill, because even a single phrase could negate every authority President Donald Trump currently has under federal law to build and fund the border wall, even canceling his authority to declare a national border emergency.

Politico’s White House reporter, Nancy Cook, came out with a curious article on Thursday, laying out how, with Congress unlikely to approve any funding for President Donald Trump’s planned border wall, he should instead go the route of a national emergency declaration, and that it is Breitbart News that has been leading the way in framing the argument for such a declaration.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) says President Trump has the legal authority to build significant portions of a border wall without additional congressional authorization or declaring a national emergency.

Federal law could not be more clear that President Donald Trump can declare a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexican border, and that such a declaration gives him access to all the funding he needs to build the wall.

If our present situation on the southern border isn’t a national emergency, nothing is. Here are some cold hard facts that demand the wall be built by any means necessary, and no, the President does not need Congressional approval to do so.

Ret. Gen. Michael McDaniel explained how the president can redirect funding appropriated for emergency executive operations.

There are currently 31 national emergencies recognized under federal law. If President Donald Trump declares a national emergency over the border crisis, it would increase that number to 32, putting in perspective how common it is for U.S. presidents to exercise that legal authority.