President Donald Trump will sign spending legislation to prevent a government shutdown while declaring a national emergency to try to build his proposed border wall, the White House confirmed Thursday.
“President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action — including a national emergency — to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement as the Senate prepared to vote on a measure to keep the government open past a midnight Friday deadline.
“The President is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country,” she said.
If Trump follows through, lawmakers and the White House would dodge their second partial shutdown since December, sparing about 800,000 federal workers from more financial pain. But the emergency declaration could quickly spark lawsuits challenging the president’s authority, creating yet another fight over his key campaign promise.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “may” file a legal challenge and will review her options, she said Thursday.
The emergency declaration would allow Trump to redirect funds from other parts of the government to the project without congressional approval. The move could in part assuage conservative critics who argued the president should not accept the latest congressional plan, which denied him the funding he demanded for the border barrier. He had threatened the action for weeks, splitting the GOP caucus as some Republicans argued it would set a dangerous precedent.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell first said Trump is “prepared to sign the bill” but would simultaneously declare a national emergency. Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, McConnell said he “indicated to [Trump] that I am going to support the national emergency declaration.” Democratic leaders have warned Trump against the move.
“I think declaring a national emergency where this is no national emergency is not good for the president to do and is not good as a precedent,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told MSNBC shortly after McConnell spoke.
The spending plan Congress aims to pass would put about $1.4 billion toward physical border barriers — short of the $5.7 billion Trump has sought. It would specifically not allow construction of new wall prototypes proposed by Trump, putting money toward 55 miles of bollard fencing. The president has claimed the wall will still get built, even as Congress dealt him his latest defeat on a project he repeatedly promised to complete.
Both Republicans and Democrats showed concerns about the spending plan, but congressional leaders from both parties backed it. The GOP appeared to wait for Trump’s support Thursday before voting, as the president waffled on whether to support the agreement.
Senate Republicans looked eager to avoid the second partial government shutdown since December. Without a new spending plan, funding for nine U.S. departments will lapse at 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday.
Funding for about a quarter of the government lapsed for 35 days during December and January. About 800,000 federal employees, furloughed or working without pay, missed two paychecks during the closure. Another shutdown threatens more financial hardship for those workers.
Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to construct the wall, and Democrats’ refusal to yield to him, led to the earlier shutdown. In December, Trump said he would “take the mantle” for the shutdown. Most Americans eventually did blame him for it, according to polls.
Despite Congress’ latest blow to his border wall plans, Trump has insisted he will build the structure regardless. He argues he has the authority to allocate funds from other parts of the government to construct it.
“The bottom line is on the wall we’re building the wall and we’re using other methods other than this and in addition to this,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
The notion of an emergency split Republicans. While McConnell supported it Thursday, Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., all criticized it in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, Cornyn called it a “dangerous step.” Last month, Rubio also questioned whether the emergency declaration would hold up in court. He also said it is “not a good precedent.”
The White House has identified $2.7 billion it could potentially redirect, according to Reuters. While it is unclear where the money would come from, he has previously suggested he could take it from the military.
The Pentagon announced earlier this month that it would send a deployment of about 3,750 troops to the U.S. border with Mexico. The additional troops will bring the total number of forces supporting the border mission to approximately 4,350, according to estimates provided by the Department of Defense.
The troop deployment, which was approved by Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan on Jan. 11, will last for 90 days. The border mission includes mobile surveillance capability as well as the emplacement of approximately 150 miles of concertina wire between ports of entry. The Pentagon first approved the deployment of active-duty troops to the Mexico border in October, on the heels of the U.S. midterm congressional elections.
The movement of thousands of active-duty troops to the border has been criticized as a political stunt designed to back Trump’s campaign promise of securing U.S. ports of entry.
At the time, Secretary of Defense James Mattis downplayed that criticism, saying that the Pentagon is providing “practical support based on the request from the commissioner of customs and border police. We don’t do stunts in this department,” he added.
Earlier this month, Trump tweeted that “we have sent additional military” to the border.
“We will build a Human Wall if necessary,” he wrote.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
