President Donald Trump has signed a border security bill to avert another government shutdown but also plans to declare a national emergency to try to obtain funds for his promised US-Mexico border wall, the White House says.
In an attempt to bypass Congress to get money that lawmakers have so far denied him for his wall Trump appeared headed toward triggering a swift court challenge from Democrats on constitutional grounds.
US President Donald J. Trump gestures while delivering remarks at the Major County Sheriffs and Major Cities Chiefs Association Joint Conference on 13/2/19. Source: ABACA
The top Democrat in Congress immediately denounced the president's move. Asked by reporters whether she would file a legal challenge to the emergency declaration, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "I may, that's an option."
"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 spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Thursday.
US Senate passes bill
The bipartisan compromise federal spending legislation has now passed both the Senate and House of Representatives, heading off a partial government shutdown that would otherwise begin at midnight Friday.
The bill does not provide money for President Donald Trump's border wall, but does contain money for other border security measures.
The White House said Trump intends to sign the bill into law.
A woman walks on the beach next to the border wall topped with razor wire in Tijuana, Mexico. Source: AAP
The legislation would provide more than $US300 billion to fund the Department of Homeland Security and a range of other agencies through September 30.
Funding for those agencies is due to expire on Friday, which would trigger another partial federal shutdown on Saturday if Congress and Trump do not act quickly.
Funds diverted to build border wall
A source familiar with the situation said the White House had identified $US2.7 billion in funds previously provided by Congress that could be redirected to barrier funding as part of a national emergency.
The source said White House lawyers had vetted the figures and believed they would withstand a legal challenge. Under the Constitution, Congress holds the national purse strings and makes major decisions on spending taxpayer money.
The Trump administration has suggested it could use national emergency powers to redirect money already committed by Congress for other purposes toward paying for Trump's wall.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Source: AAP
Pelosi criticises Trump's plan to declare a national emergency
Pelosi accused Trump of doing "an end-run" around Congress and around the Constitution's separation of powers that gives Congress, not the president, such authority as federal spending and declaring war.
"It's not an emergency, what's happening at the border. It's a humanitarian challenge to us," Pelosi said.
"If the president can declare an emergency on something that he has created as an emergency - an illusion that he wants to convey - just think of what a president with different values can present to the American people," Pelosi added, pointing to gun violence in the US as a national emergency.
Trump triggered a 35-day-long shutdown of about a quarter of the federal government with his December demand for $US5.7 billion to help build a portion of the wall.
The border bill would provide $US1.37 billion in new money to help build 89km of new physical barriers on the border.
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