The Trump administration faces a lawsuit filed by 19 states due to the diversion of funds from the military toward a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Diverting $3.8 billion from the Pentagon toward the border is the subject of the newly filed federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump.
Filed at the U.S. District Court in Northern California, the lawsuit reveals that diverting billions from the military, including from National Guard accounts, "will cause damage to their economies, harming their proprietary interests."
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin are the states involved in the lawsuit.
They assert that such diversion of money already placed by lawmakers toward a border wall infringes the Congress' appropriation powers.
"This year’s victim of his taxpayer money grab is the National Guard, which would lose critical funds to secure essential equipment for our troops,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
"Congress has repeatedly and explicitly rejected taxpayer funding for a wasteful Trump wall along the border. We're going to court — once again — to remind Donald Trump that even the President is not above the law."
"Troublesome"
In 2019, Trump announced a national emergency to divert money from military defense programs, such as infrastructure activities and counter-drug accounts, to put up border barriers. The fund, worth around $10 billion, has been transferred from Pentagon coffers since then.
Moreover, the Pentagon reportedly shifted $1.3 billion from National Guard and Reserve equipment. Resources for fighter jet procurement and shipbuilding programs have also been slashed.
Republican Ken Calvert of California finds the money shift "troublesome" and told lawmakers could "lose control of the appropriating process" during a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing with National Guard and Reserve officers.
"This kind of reprogramming has to end," Calvert said. "There's going to be a future president at some point, maybe President [Bernie] Sanders, who may want to create a national emergency and move money into Health and Human Services."
