Trump to Seek $8Bln More for Wall After Declaring State of Emergency - Reports

06:55 GMT, 15 February 2019

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump expects to receive up to $8 billion additionally for the construction of the wall on the border with Mexico through declaring a state of emergency, NBC News reported, citing sources from the White House.

Sputnik

An administration official source told NBC News that Trump will announce he seeks an additional $8 billion for wall construction.

According to the source, along with the funds allocated by Congress, Trump is seeking to get $600 million from the Treasury Department's drug forfeiture fund, $2.5 billion from the Defense Department's drug interdiction program and $3.5 billion from the military construction budget.

Declaring the state of emergency will allow the president to redirect funds from ministries bypassing congressional approval.

Pelosi Could File Legal Challenge if Trump Declares National Emergency

14 February 2019, 20:43 GMT

This comes after on Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a funding bill President Donald Trump is expected to sign to avert a federal government shutdown ahead of Friday's deadline. The bill includes only $1.375 billion of the $5.7 billion the president wants to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. However, the White House confirmed that Trump would take executive action to declare a national emergency on the US southern border in order to acquire the funding needed to build a border wall.

Trump is set to deliver remarks on the national security and humanitarian crisis on the US southern border from the White House’s Rose Garden on Friday at 10:00 a.m. local time (15:00 GMT), according to the president’s public schedule released on Thursday.