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T The budget impasse between President Trump and Congress has just entered its third week. The House will not pass a spending bill that gives Trump the $ 5.6 billion he wants for his wall, or even money for the wall. Trump will not sign an invoice that does not contain it.
The resulting partial government shutdown is just beginning to the point where it begins to hurt, when key government staff members work without pay.
Trump is looking for a way around this problem and he might have found one. He announced that he could declare a national emergency and use it as an excuse to build the border wall that he had promised and crossed.
Although such a measure could solve the problem of closure (at least for this year), it would do so at the expense of an appropriate constitutional order. Even if this ad hoc solution is legally plausible, it is a terrible way of governing and an additional sign that Congress has relinquished too much of its legitimate power to oversee the executive power.
Trump's plan would be to declare an emergency at the border and use it to justify the use of military construction funds for the construction of a wall.
Emergency governance has become a common practice. In 2017, there were 28 different active federal national emergencies. Some are real and threatening, but few are imminent. Six date back to Bill Clinton's presidency, which ended 18 years ago. More than a dozen public health emergencies were then in effect and every year hundreds of public disaster declarations are literally made, some more meritorious than others.
Such statements are not always abuses of power, but they are often used simply to create certain advantageous legal situations or to free money for one purpose or another. The Congressional Research Service discovered in 2007 that there existed in law emergency powers allowing the President to "seize property, organize and control means of production, confiscating property, assigning military forces abroad, instituting martial law, seizing and controlling all transport and communications regulate the operation of private enterprises, restrict travel and, in many ways, control the lives of US citizens. "
Just look at this list to find that such power will inevitably be abused.Even if there are means of control (including judicial review of many" emergency "designations Against the creation of false emergencies, the presidents have far too much power to act alone.
Even if you support the construction of a border wall, it should worry you that this kind of power is in the hands Other presidents whose agenda you will not support The Conservatives have rightly cried foul when former President Barack Obama said his program "can not wait" for Congress. Has it changed since?
It is possible that Trump finds an intelligent "emergency" method to finance his wall. (It is also possible that he is stuck in a court of law until he reaches court. at the end of his presidency, but who account?) If it turns out legal that a president declares an emergency as an excuse to spend money without congressional approval, a terrible sign that the negligence of long time our constitutional mechanism is degrading the system created by our founders.
If legislators want to build a wall, they must start by designing a better barrier between congressional powers and executive power.
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