OPINION:
The one point I have not seen discussed in the border-wall controversy is that Congress consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives (“Trump to appeal court ruling blocking emergency declaration wall-building plans,” Web, May 25). Previous full Congresses approved the laws used to reallocate the funds in question, and lawfully appropriated those funds. Normal reallocation practices demonstrate that those laws did not have to specify the specific future needs their scopes covered.
President Trump announced that he would use those previous laws, if necessary, to construct the border wall. The current Congress did not move to alter those laws.
However, according to Judge Haywood Gilliam, a current House majority alone can bar a president from using funds previously allocated by a full Congress (in accordance with law previously passed by a full Congress) simply by refusing to allocate more funds for the specific use in question.
That preemption of previous congressional acts by an expression of the will of one house of Congress, not turned into law by the full Congress, isn’t by any stretch our constitutional system.
BILL MILLS
Sterling, Va.
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