Senate Democrats Try to Cut Off 'Emergency Funds' for Trump's Border Wall

Senate Democrats Try to Cut Off ‘Emergency Funds’ for Trump’s Border Wall
The RAIDER Act looks to preempt the president from going down the route he seems destined to take.
Sam Brodey
02.04.19 1:03 PM ET


A group of Senate Democrats are aiming to block President Donald Trump from building his proposed border wall by declaring a national emergency – an announcement the president could make as soon as Tuesday during his State of the Union address.

Roughly a dozen Democrats are getting behind a bill, being introduced Monday afternoon, that would prohibit Trump from building the wall using funds drawn from either the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the Department of Defense’s military construction accounts.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), said that Congress must “assert its role as a co-equal branch of government” and block Trump from raiding these accounts—which could contain as much as $35 billion for emergency projects—for a “politically-motivated, unjustified national emergency declaration that isn’t based in reality.”

The bill, which is titled the Restrictions Against Illegitimate Declarations for Emergency Re-Appropriations, or RAIDER, Act, states that “no funds appropriated or otherwise made available prior to the date of the enactment of this Act may be used for the construction of barriers, land acquisition, or any other associated activities on the southern border without specific statutory authorization from Congress.”

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/senate-democrats-try-to-cut-off-emergency-funds-for-trumps-border-wall?ref=home