Breitbart
February 20, 2019
President Donald Trump can likely begin building new sections of the border barrier, despite a federal lawsuit filed by California and 15 other states on Monday challenging the the national emergency declaration he issued Friday.
The reason: only some — about $3.6 billion — of the roughly $8 billion Trump wants to spend on the barrier actually requires an emergency to be declared in order to be allocated. The rest, theoretically, can be spent regardless — especially the $1.4 billion Congress approved, though it is subject to some restrictions that may not apply to the rest of the money.
Conn Carroll, communications director for Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), explained the reasoning on Twitter Friday:
Some quick notes on early coverage of President Trump’s announcement today that pretty much all reporters are missing 1/
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) February 15, 2019
The WH did not make one executive action today. In reality they made three, only one of which involved an emergency declaration. 2/
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) February 15, 2019
First the WH announced they would be funding $601 million in wall construction from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, relying on 31 U.S.C. § 9705. This does not require an emergency declaration. 3/
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) February 15, 2019
Second, the WH announced they would be funding $2.5 billion in wall construction under 10 U.S.C. § 284 (this is MilCon $ for combating drug trafficking). This does not require an emergency declaration. 4/
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) February 15, 2019
Finally, the WH announced they would be funding $3.6 billion under 10 U.S.C. § 2808. This money does require an emergency declaration. 5/
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) February 15, 2019
According to the WH this money will be spent sequentially so the § 9705 money will be spent first then the § 284 money then the…