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President Donald Trump said his “friend” donated $130 million to pay military service members’ salaries government shutdown – a move that has raised eyebrows among legal experts.
Speaking at a roundtable on Thursday, The President revealed His “friend” calls him to say he wants to contribute “if there’s a shortage.” Then the man sent a check for $130 million, trump Said.
The Department of Defense accepted an anonymous Donation “Under his normal gift approval authority,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Thursday. “The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of service members’ salaries and benefits.”
Compensation for service members is funded through annual appropriations by Congress. But those appropriations expired on October 1, and America is now enduring The second longest shutdown in the country’s history.
Earlier this month, Trump ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “All available funds” To ensure that soldiers are compensated during lapses in appropriations.
The anonymous donation has raised some concerns.
A spokesman for Delaware Senator Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, said Independent: “Using anonymous donations to fund our military raises troubling questions about whether our own troops are truly at risk of being bought and paid for by foreign powers. No one wants to see our men and women serve in uniform without pay, and the best way to pay our troops is for President Trump and Republicans to reopen the government and address the skyrocketing costs affecting American families. Gotta work with the Democrats.”
Before accepting gifts worth more than $10,000, acceptance officers must consult an ethics officer Department of Defense Policy From March.
The policy also requires certain screening of the donor, such as ensuring that the donor has “no interests that could be substantially affected by the performance or non-performance of the DoD employee’s official duties.”
Little is known about the anonymous donor.
Trump described the unnamed man as a “patriot” at the roundtable, saying, “I would love to tell you that he deserves it — he doesn’t really want the recognition.”
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, an ethics monitoring organization in Washington, criticized it on social media. Post: “It should go without saying, but the American government should be funded by the American people, not by the president’s anonymous mega-donor friends.”
“Things shouldn’t work this way in a democracy – it raises all kinds of legal and ethical concerns,” the group said.
Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, is seeking information on “how this gift and other recent reprogrammings comply with the Anti-Deficiency Act,” his spokesman said. cnn,
Work Prohibits federal agencies from spending federal funds more than the amounts set aside for them by Congress.
It was not immediately clear how many salaries would be covered by that money. The Pentagon declined to answer a question about the pay checks.
“There are too many variables to accurately estimate how many personnel will be paid the $130 million, but with a very rough calculation, it could cover about 2 percent of the active-duty force,” said Ellen McCusker, a former Pentagon comptroller and now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank. bloomberg,
Emory University law professor and former White House budget official Matthew Lawrence also expressed skepticism, pointing out that military clause of the constitutionWhich authorizes Congress to “raise and support” the military and requires it to renew appropriations every two years.
“The producers were very concerned about the president’s control over the standing military,” he told Bloomberg. “Allowing support for the military outside the appropriations process, such as during a lapse in appropriations, would be directly contrary to this constitutional imperative.”
On Thursday, a group of Democratic senators introduced the True Shutdown Fairness Act, which would resume payments for federal employees, service members and federal contractors who were furloughed during the shutdown.
“We must press to reopen the government with a responsible compromise that holds the President accountable to the law, protects federal employees and our service members, and prevents massive increases in Americans’ health care costs,” Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.
The soldiers are scheduled to receive their next salary on October 31.