Perhaps then both sides were correct. Those of us who are saying that Trump cannot spend monies on anything he likes, is governed by Appropriations, is governed by the Constitution, and cannot simply have the Army Corps of Engineers construct a wall - were correct.
Those who say that Trump is going to use the DoD to build the wall may be correct, in that, an arcane House rule was passed that bypasses the prohibition in the bill, to wit:
"Section 1039. Rule of construction regarding use of Department of Defense funding of a border wall. None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this act or otherwise made available for the fiscal year 2018 for the Department of Defense may be used to plan, develop or construct any barriers, including walls or fences, along the international border of the United States."
But then the article says this:
An amendment was offered by Republican Reps. Steven Palazzo and Trent Kelly from Mississippi (which has coastline but no land border) to strike Section 1039. That means Pentagon money could be spent to construct a border wall. In the normal process of things, this amendment would have been accepted by the Rules Committee and then debated and voted on by the full House of Representatives. But nothing about this amendment can be called normal.
I am still not convinced that President Trump has this authority. As I stated yesterday and this morning, it is against the law to spend money on things that were not appropriated for a very specific purpose.
If this arcane House rule does allow him to do so.....well, that is unprecedented as far as I know. I hope it's true, but waiting to see.
Again, I guess we will see. What adds to the confusing mixture is Trump's tweet from this morning:
Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M! The Rules Committee took this one amendment and labeled it, "proposed to be adopted." In the arcana of House rules, this means that voting for the rule governing consideration of the bill was also voting for this amendment. This is known as a "self-executing rule." The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York, offered an amendment to strike the self-executing portion of the rule and was defeated in committee on a party-line vote of 4-8. On the House floor, the vote on the full rule passed. And at the end of a long and exhausting day (and story), that means Pentagon money can be used to construct a border wall. Talk about governing under the cover of darkness.