On Feb. 5, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, sponsored legislation to protect funding for the Great Lakes that she claims would be siphoned off by President Trump to build a physical wall along the southern border. The bill was a preemptive response to a declaration of a national emergency President Trump announced on Friday after failing to corral Congress into funding a wall.
Stabenow’s bill, the RAIDER Act of 2019, seeks to prevent the president from using funds from the Army Corps of Engineers and Military Construction accounts to finance a border wall without the permission of Congress. According to the National Emergencies Act, these agencies contain the funds that are most at risk of being redirected under a national emergency.
