The Senate has voted to approve a border deal to avert a government shutdown that is slated to start Friday. According to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Trump will sign the bill and also issue a National Emergency declaration at the same time in order to obtain all the funds necessary to build the wall the President envisions.
Note that the report below from the Washington Examiner below does not include the update that the Senate has already voted to approve the bill.
The White House confirmed McConnell’s understanding shortly after he spoke.
“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,” said press secretary Sarah Sanders. “The president is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country.”
The House and Senate are scheduled to clear the spending bill today. Trump has indicated this week he will sign the bill even though it falls short of the money he wants, because he believes he has the authority to use pre-existing funding to build more border wall.
Democrats and some Republicans do not back the president’s idea of using his executive authority to reallocate funding. Many Republicans said they want more information about how it would be accomplished.
President Trump made all the right moves here. While many called for him to immediately bypass Congress by declaring a National Emergency when it became obvious that the Dems would hardly give an inch, that would have likely hurt his efforts in the upcoming court hearings that Democrats will certainly demand.
The fight to get the wall done is far from over, but there can be no doubt that Trump has plenty of fight left in him.
Source: Washington Examiner
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