174 GOP House members vote to let Trump raid military funds to pay for his wall

A bad week for Donald Trump got worse on Friday. Two days after the Senate voted 54-41 to terminate his declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, the House adopted the same resolution by a vote of 236-174. Just 11 Republicans joined with one independent and the Democratic majority to end the so-called “emergency,” well short of the number required to override Trump’s inevitable veto.

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Trump ran for president promising to build a massive wall across the entire length of the southern border of the nation. Over and over, he vowed that Mexico would happily pay 100% of the cost.

After Trump was elected, it quickly became clear that Mexico had no intention of spending billions of dollars for Trump’s wall. Quickly, he pivoted to trying to get Congress to appropriate funds so the American people would pay for the entire project. But even after he tried to force this through the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, Congress balked at the demand too.

Instead, Trump decided to effectively steal the money by using a legally questionable theory of presidential powers. He declared a national emergency and announced that he would take money Congress appropriated for the military to instead begin construction on his stalled wall.

In March, the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate issued a rare bipartisan rebuke of Trump, voting to end the emergency declaration. Trump vetoed the legislation and their effort died.

In September, the Trump administration announced 127 defense projects it would raid for the $3.6 billion it wants in wall money. This included cuts to efforts like reducing sewage backups at an Air Force base child care facility, updates to an unsafe Army installation, and improvements to military base schools around the world. They now reportedly plan to ask Congress to add that money back into the budget with new appropriations — so they can raid the defense budget again for another $3.6 billion.

In light of these revelations, Congress has again voted to rebuke Trump and end his so-called emergency. But even as their own military family constituents suffer from the Trump administration’s maneuvers, the vast majority of House Republicans effectively voted to say they are just fine with this.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.