{"id":46421,"date":"2019-01-09T03:05:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T03:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/01\/09\/pentagon-dodges-budget-disaster-as-trump-skips-national-emergency-declaration\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:29:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:29:56","slug":"pentagon-dodges-budget-disaster-as-trump-skips-national-emergency-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/01\/09\/pentagon-dodges-budget-disaster-as-trump-skips-national-emergency-declaration\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump skirts emergency declaration amid more looming budget, legal battles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump stopped short during Tuesday\u2019s prime-time address of declaring a national emergency<\/a> that would empower him to construct a southern border wall<\/a> without congressional approval, instead labeling it a \u201chumanitarian and security crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Trump is not precluded from taking the extraordinary step some time in the future, it emerged Tuesday that such action would invite a legal battle from Congress and lead to a politically fraught reshuffling of funding under the existing fiscal 2019 military construction budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The possibility came amid a deadlock<\/a> with congressional Democrats that has led to a partial government shutdown now in its third week<\/a>. Trump has refused to sign any spending bill to reopen federal agencies that does not include $5.7 billion to begin construction of the wall, his signature campaign promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 800,000 federal workers without paychecks due to the shutdown, Trump said his administration “is doing everything in our power to help those impacted by the situation,\u201d without elaborating. Trump plans to meet with congressional leadership at the White House on Wednesday to continue discussions on reopening the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his televised speech from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, Trump made an emotional and direct pitch to the American people, repeating rhetoric about the U.S.-Mexico border as a conduit for drugs and violent criminals and using emotional language to describe Americans killed by people in the country illegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration. I\u2019ve held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief-stricken fathers. So sad. So terrible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding in their own televised remarks, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of misrepresenting the situation on the border as they urged him to reopen closed government departments and turn loose paychecks for hundreds of thousands of workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schumer said Trump \u201cjust used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some reports suggested that just hours before the speech, Trump was undecided about whether to declare a national emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to two congressional staffers, the Pentagon on Tuesday was exploring the president\u2019s legal authority to declare a national emergency, which would allow him to repurpose unobligated money from existing military construction or family housing projects, for use by the military, among other possible legal avenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As that possibility percolated, House Democrats mulled their menu of counter-moves, to include a lawsuit, legislative action to rescind the national emergency or appropriations legislation that would claw the money back from Trump. If either legislation passed the House, it would put pressure on the Senate to follow up, but it seems highly unlikely Trump would sign it into law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key lawmakers on both sides of the aisle publicly warned against declaring a national emergency to redirect military funding for a wall. Speaking with reporters, the House Armed Services Committee\u2019s top Republican, Rep. Mac Thornberry, blamed Democrats in the impasse over wall funding, but said using military construction dollars for a wall would be \u201cdamaging\u201d to the military readiness and quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn short, I\u2019m opposed to using defense dollars for non-defense purposes,\u201d said Thornberry, of Texas. He added that while border security is important, it\u2019s the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s job, not the Pentagon\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Thornberry\u2019s reckoning, Trump-era defense budgets have yet to make up for Obama-era neglect of the military construction budget. \u201cSeems to me we ought to fund border security needs on their own and not be taking it from other accounts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Trump on Monday took a quote from HASC chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., out of context to suggest Smith was on his side, Smith made the rounds on TV to correct the record. He told CNN that Trump declaring a national emergency would be \u201ca huge mistake\u201d and invite a court challenge, \u201cbecause there clearly is no emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis would undermine the readiness of our national security,\u201d Smith told MSNBC of the hypothetical plan. \u201cIt would take money away from building the facilities that our troops need to train, be equipped and prepare for the missions we want to send them on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., did not publicly weigh in Tuesday, his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Jack Reed, earlier in the week vowed to block any \u201cphony\u201d national emergency declaration. Reed, of Rhode Island, serves on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeclaring a trumped up national emergency in order to skirt Congressional approval is wrong,\u201d Reed said in a statement. \u201cAnd our troops and taxpayers should not bear the burden of a broken, preposterous campaign promise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reed is among Democrats who have pushed back on the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to use $450 million to enhance existing border fencing and construct new border fencing along 31 miles of the Barry M. Goldwater Range in Arizona, calling the project wasteful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With more obvious needs at hurricane-damaged Camp Lejeune<\/a> in North Carolina and Tyndall Air Force Base<\/a> in Florida, it might be difficult for the White House to make the case, even to other Republican lawmakers, for raiding the military construction budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a zero sum game,\u201d said one congressional staffer. \u201cImagine any other president redirecting military funding for a non-military use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t