The Pentagon still has not announced what military construction money it will move around to fund the border wall, which President Trump declared a national emergency to build.
Here’s the latest:
- The Pentagon has asked the Department of Homeland Security to explain how the border wall would help military “effectiveness” before it determines which priorities should go unfunded to pay for the construction, Military Times
- DOD will have to ask Congress for authority to move money from various accounts to the counterdrug account so that the counterdrug account can then be used to build the border barrier, CQ reported. Defense authorizers and appropriators in both chambers would have to sign off on that, which is unlikely, further complicating the search for defense dollars to spend on the emergency.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is backing a resolution to disapprove of the emergency declaration, which is expected to pass the House, according to Politico. That would automatically trigger a Senate vote within 18 days.
- If four Republican Senators joined all Democrats, the resolution would pass there, too. Politico published a list of the Republicans who have been critical of the declaration.
- Court challenges continue to pop up. El Paso County, a border community in West Texas, joined the Border Network for Human Rights Thursday in a joint lawsuit asking a judge to rule the national emergency declaration to be unconstitutional, according to Time.
Customs and Border Protection photo by Nicholas Robbs