President Trump is set to declare a national emergency during Friday morning remarks from the Rose Garden at the White House.
Trump is also expected to sign a spending bill to avoid a second government shutdown over his campaign promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In order to get the wall funding he wants without Congressional approval, Trump has signaled he will declare a national emergency with the goal of shifting funds for wall construction.
The spending bill, passed by Congress on Thursday, will give about $1.4 billion for 55 miles of fencing along the border in Texas. The amount falls far short of the $5.7 billion Trump had initially demanded to fund the wall.
The spending bill is the result of three weeks of negotiations following a 35-day government shutdown, the longest in history, in a standoff over the wall. Democrats in Congress have refused to allocate additional funding for border barriers.
By declaring a national emergency, Trump will have about $8 billion in order to build the wall along the southern border, Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff told reporters Friday morning ahead of the announcement.
Of that $8 billion, $1.375 billion will come from the appropriations bill, and those funds can be used for barriers, not a wall, along the border. An additional $3.5 billion will come from the Defense Department’s military construction budget, which requires the declaration of a national emergency to be used.
Trump will also be able to use $2.5 billion from the Defense Department’s drug interaction program and $600 million from the Treasury Department’s drug forfeiture fund. Administration officials said Trump’s goal is to build 234 miles of a border wall.
Trump’s likely emergency declaration faces opposition from Congressional Democrats, and even some members of his own party have urged him not to start the precedent of using emergency powers for the wall.
You can watch Trump’s announcement here live.
