Relations between the Department of Defense (DoD) and congressional committees that write the US military budget are likely to suffer if President Donald Trump acts on a threat to declare a national emergency and build a wall on the border with Mexico without approval from Congress, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durban warned acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Wednesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th January, 2019) Relations between the Department of Defense (DoD) and congressional committees that write the US military budget are likely to suffer if President Donald Trump acts on a threat to declare a national emergency and build a wall on the border with Mexico without approval from Congress, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durban warned acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Wednesday."Using DoD funds to pay for the wall, when Congress was never asked to approve of such a plan, is a major breach of relations between DoD and the oversight committees," Durbin said in a press release. "In my meeting with Acting Secretary Shanahan, I cautioned him that if President Trump directs DoD to circumvent Congress in such a legally dubious way on such a major issue, Congress will have to reevaluate its relationship with the Department."
Durbin said one consequence would be the removal of "broad flexibility" on how the Defense Department spends its budget, particularly money allocated for military construction projects.
Should Trump declare a national emergency, he could try to direct the Defense Department to build the wall using billions of Dollars in unspent military construction funding, Durbin said.
The funds would likely come from cutting or eliminating real military construction projects that the Defense Department had requested, Durbin added.
