Co-sponsored by Senator Murray, the RAIDER Act of 2019 stops President Trump from bypassing Congress and raiding as much as $35 billion from military construction and disaster response funds for land acquisition or construction of his wall
To see more tweets from Senator Murray on President Trump’s misguided efforts to build a wall on the southern U.S. border, visit HERE.
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) joined more than a dozen of her Senate Democratic colleagues to introduce the Restrictions Against Illegitimate Declarations for Emergency Re-appropriations (RAIDER) Act of 2019. The legislation prevents the president from utilizing the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to raid critical military construction and disaster response funds to construct his wall along the southern border. A frequent critic of President Trump’s immigration agenda, Senator Murray has been outspoken in her opposition to Trump’s reckless actions on the southern U.S. border, including his previous efforts to use federal dollars to build a southern border wall.
“For President Trump to declare a state of emergency and circumvent Congress and the American people based on lies and a manufactured crisis would be an outrageous, horrific, and un-American abuse of power,” Senator Murray said. “I urge him not to take such a radical and wrong step—and I’m calling on everyone to make their voices heard and keep the pressure on.”
Before, during, and after the partial shutdown of the federal government caused by President Trump he has repeatedly threatened to declare a national emergency to bypass Congress and finance construction of his border wall, and recent press reports indicate a declaration is being drafted in the White House. Under the National Emergencies Act, the funds most at risk of being misdirected to build the president’s wall are U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) civil works funds and Military Construction (Milcon) funding. President Trump is threatening to take funds from critical disaster recovery, flood protection, and military base construction projects in states across the country.
This legislation would bar the transfer of any funding from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or Military Construction accounts for construction, land acquisition or other activities related to President Trump’s border wall following any potential emergency declaration, unless Congress granted specific authority to do so. While the administration has not released precise figures, some estimates indicate there could be as much as $35 billion in congressionally appropriated but yet unobligated funding for DOD military construction projects and Army Corps disaster funds at risk from an emergency declaration move.
Read the full text of the bill available HERE. A summary of the legislation is available HERE.
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