on Thursday, I suggested that President Trump has sufficient congressional authority to spend the $5.7 billion he asked for in his January 6 letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman to build 234 miles of border wall without resort to a dangerous national emergency precedent that could upset the constitutional separation of powers that goes to the heart of our freedom. I believe the President has clear authority to transfer up to $4 billion among accounts within the over $600 billion defense budget in order to counter drug activities and to block drug smuggling corridors across international borders. On February 15, the President said that he plans to use $2.5 billion of this same transfer authority to build the 234 miles of wall along the southern border that he asked for in his January 6 letter. If he increases the transfer from $2.5 billion to $3.7 billion, along with the other existing funding authority that he has, he will have the full $5.7 billion that he said he needed. William E. Nelson, of New York University School of Law--one of America's foremost scholars of legal history--wrote an excellent op-ed last week that explained why it is so important that the President and the Congress should not, in Professor Nelson's words, ``invert the entire constitutional order where Congress appropriates and the President spends.'' I ask unanimous consent that Professor Nelson's article be printed in the Record.…
Share
More from Heidi Alexander
I am here this morning to talk about a hearing that we had in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee this morning that affects 20 million families who have to fill this out every year. This is called the FAFSA. Usually, there…
I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized to speak for as long as I may require. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________
Everyone deserves to enjoy their summer holiday without delays – which is why we are doing all we can to help travellers get through these new EU security checks as smoothly as possible.
I want to speak for a few minutes about the changes to telehealth during the last five months--one of the most dramatic developments in the delivery of medical services ever--and why we in Congress should make many of those changes…





