A review of existing federal laws makes clear that President Donald Trump has clear statutory authority to build a border wall pursuant to a declaration of a national emergency. Arguments to the contrary either mischaracterize or completely ignore existing federal emergency declarations and appropriations laws that delegate to the president temporary and limited authority to reprogram already appropriated funding toward the creation of a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
To analyze the legal basis for Trump’s declaration of a national emergency and subsequent transfer of existing appropriations to respond to the declared emergency, we must begin and end with the actual text of underlying federal laws governing presidential declarations and appropriations of federal funding. The most important text regarding the latter is Section 9 of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law[.]”
This law is what grants Congress the so-called “power of the purse” and effectively makes Congress the most powerful branch of the federal government. Not one dime may be spent by the federal government in the absence of an act of Congress. As a result, no mere declaration of emergency by the president is sufficient to allow the expenditure of funding that Congress has not already appropriated.
To analyze the legal basis for Trump’s declaration of a national emergency and subsequent transfer of existing appropriations to respond to the declared emergency, we must begin and end with the actual text of underlying federal laws governing presidential declarations and appropriations of federal funding. The most important text regarding the latter is Section 9 of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law[.]”
This law is what grants Congress the so-called “power of the purse” and effectively makes Congress the most powerful branch of the federal government. Not one dime may be spent by the federal government in the absence of an act of Congress. As a result, no mere declaration of emergency by the president is sufficient to allow the expenditure of funding that Congress has not already appropriated.
