02/18/2019
Following a national emergency declaration, President Trump’s search for border wall funding will run outside the appropriations process in Congress. Fox’s Chad Pergram explains in today’s “Speaker Lobby.”
I’m Chad Pergram with the Speaker’s Lobby.
House and Senate border security conferees crafted a $49 billion package for the Department of Homeland Security.
Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution dictates that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in Consequence of Appropriations made by law.”
That is, unless the White House uses what’s called “transfer authority.”
There are 12 individual spending bills.
There’s “Account A” and “Account B” in the DHS measure.
The administration may decide it needs more money for a priority in Account B.
So, it wants to “reprogram” the money from Account A to Account B.
Such a maneuver is allowed.
But the gambit entails a sign-off by the top members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
What President Trump wants to do is to go around Congress without a blessing.
This tactic starts to test the Constitutional limits of Article I, Section 9, granting Congress the authority to spend money how it sees fit.
Moreover, each program has supporters in Congress.
And lawmakers will likely howl if the President touches their programs robbing Peter to pay Paul
With the Speaker’s Lobby, Chad Pergram. Fox News.
