Yesterday, with far too few Republicans in Congress willing to stand up to Trump's assault on the Constitution, Pelosi attempted, futilely, to override his veto of Congress' bipartisan decision to prevent him from stealing legally appropriated money from the military budget to build 57 more miles of his vanity-wall on the southern border. As commander-in-chief, he ordered the Pentagon to take billions of dollars from military personnel accounts for his medieval wall. The override failed 248 to 181, 14 Republicans joining all the Democrats. When the bill was originally passed, 13 Republicans were on board-- Justin Amash (MI), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Mike Gallagher (WI), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA), Will Hurd (TX), Dusty Johnson (SD), Tom Massie (KY), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), Tom Rooney (FL), Jim Sensenbrenner (WI), Elise Stefanik (NY), Fred Upton (MI) and Greg Walden (OR). This time they were joined by John Katko (NY) who was absent for the first vote and who represents a blue-leaning district centered on Syracuse, NY.Yesterday, House Armed Services Committee chair Adam Smith (D-WA) said the move would likely compel Congress to strip the Pentagon of the authority to "reprogram" funds that have been appropriated for specific purposes and programs. He said that "Whatever one feels about the border wall, to look at the Pentagon as sort of a piggybank-slash-slush fund, where you can simply go in and grab money for something when you need it, really undermines the credibility of the entire DoD budget. Funding a border wall out of the Department of Defense is also unbelievably irresponsible." Ranking member Mac Thornberry (R-TX) also said he opposes using defense funding for other purposes, but like virtually all the Republicans in the House, he's afraid to cross Trump.
That authority is currently provided only in cases where the Pentagon consults with Congress before acting. But in this case, Smith noted, the Defense Department did not ask permission."Given a legal order from the commander in chief, we are executing on that order," Shanahan replied. He added that the Pentagon was aware that there were "downsides, which will hamper us"-- including likely losing what he called the privilege of reprogramming funds.Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said that while the committee's members might disagree on border and immigration policies, "We have bipartisan support for the fact that our military budget should not be cannibalized for our border security needs."...The money nearly doubles the $1.3 billion Congress authorized for border wall funding. Trump had requested $5.7 billion.Shanahan is testifying one day after informing Congress that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin using up to $1 billion to support border security operations by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Patrol. The president cleared the way for that process in February, when Trump took the rare step of declaring a national emergency to get more border security funding than Congress would allow.Objecting to the Pentagon's plan, Democratic senators sent a letter to Shanahan stating that by transferring money without the appropriate congressional committees, the Defense Department had violated the defense appropriations bill."As a result, we have serious concerns that the Department has allowed political interference and pet projects to come ahead of many near-term, critical readiness issues facing our military," the senators wrote.
Next stop: the courts.