Graves, Cassidy: Trump unlikely to take Louisiana flood control dollars for border wall
The
Trump has publicly weighed declaring an emergency to build the border wall -- a key campaign promise -- as a way to circumvent a showdown with
Most of those dollars have been earmarked for the project but haven't yet been spent, meaning the
But Rep.
Graves -- who spent years in
The dollars the Trump administration is considering using to build a border wall "are not funds from
"We are doing everything we can to work with the
Garamendi called the possibility of diverting those funds "reprehensible."
Cassidy's communications director,
Trump administration officials are also reportedly considering using cash seized from drug cartels and money taken by the federal government in civil asset forfeitures -- a sometimes-controversial procedure that allows the government to seize property allegedly used in a crime -- to fund wall construction.
Cassidy has repeatedly suggested that idea to the Trump administration over the past year, billing the plan as a way to make "Mexican drug cartels" pay for the wall -- a riff on Trump's unfilled campaign proposal to make the Mexican government fund construction.
Sen.
But Kennedy didn't indicate whether he'd received assurances they wouldn't be impacted. But he defended Trump's insistence on fighting for the dollars and quickly attacked congressional
"What I do know is that it is impossible to secure a 1,900 mile border without using a barrier," Kennedy said. "The reason that part of the federal government is shut down is because Speaker Pelosi hates
Graves said he's long supported better security measures on the border with
"It's ridiculous that we're in this predicament, that the government is partially shuttered, that federal employees aren't getting paid right now and that it has come to the president making an emergency declaration to divert billions of dollars from important projects to protect our southern border," said Graves, who's asked that his own pay be withheld until the standoff ends.
Graves said he doesn't believe using an emergency declaration to build the wall, a move that's sure to draw legal challenges in federal court, "is an option that should have to be on the table -- and the precedent does concern me."
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