-Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith said he is drafting legislation to block the Trump’s plan to reallocate $3.8 billion in DOD weapons projects to fund the border wall, CQ reported. “Time is of the essence,” said Smith. “They robbed the bank and they are running away with the money, and we need to stop them before they get too far.”
-The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in California on Friday on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition against the Border Wall funding diversion. The ACLU argues the Constitution forbids the president to spend appropriations above levels endorsed by Congress.
-Washington State U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein ruled that Trump could not divert $89 million in funding for Naval Base Kitsap for the Border Wall, reported Navy Times. “Congress repeatedly and deliberately declined to appropriate the full funds the President requested for a border wall along the southern border of the United States,” Rothstein wrote.
Photo by Marine Corps Sgt. Dylan C. Overbay, DOD
