Trump is using new, sometimes legally dubious means to get around the government shutdown

Trump returns to the White House from Camp David

(Image credit: Chris Kleponis - Pool/Getty Images)

published 7 January 2019

The partial government shutdown over President Trump's proposed border wall hit 16 days on Sunday, making it the third longest shutdown on record, with no end in sight. Trump said Sunday that if Democrats don't agree to fund his wall of steel, he might declare a national emergency to build the wall without congressional approval.

And that's not the only way his administration is trying to work around the shutdown:

On Saturday, the Interior Department authorized the National Park Service to use entrance fees to pay for trash pickup and other operations at unsupervised or understaffed national parks. Congressional Democrats suggested that's probably illegal.
Museums and monuments are closed in Washington, D.C., but the Trump administration found money to staff the Old Post Office tower with National Park Service rangers. The federal General Services Administration owns the 120-year-old clock tower, attached to the Trump International Hotel.
On Friday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sent letters to 1,500 landlords to try and prevent the evictions of thousands of tenants in a HUD program that agency officials hadn't realized expired on Jan. 1, The Washington Post reports.
Agriculture Department officials, also caught off guard by the shutdown, are working to prevent 38 million Americans from losing access to food programs, though USDA could begin telling states this week to prepare for a lapse in federal funds.
The Internal Revenue Service is looking for ways to legally process tax refund checks, after saying in December it didn't have that authority during a shutdown.

House Democrats plan to pass separate appropriations bills to fund individual shuttered departments, starting with the Treasury, to highlight that Trump and Senate Republicans are the roadblock to reopening the government. "The impression you get from the president is that he would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress so the only voice that mattered was his own," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on CBS News' Sunday Morning.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.