San Francisco, April 5, 2019  – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after the House filed a lawsuit challenging the President’s decision to transfer funds from appropriated accounts for his border wall, in violation of Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 – the Appropriations Clause – of the Constitution:

“Today, the House is taking action once more to uphold the Constitution from the President’s brazen assault, and to defend our Democracy.

“The President’s decision to contravene the will of the bipartisan, bicameral Congress after being denied the funds he demanded for his sham emergency stands in stark, unequivocal violation of the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause.  The Constitution’s express statement of Congress’s ‘exclusive power over the federal purse,’ according to the courts, is both ‘a bulwark of the Constitution’s separation of powers among the three branches of the National Government,’ and ‘particularly important as a restraint on Executive Branch officers.’  As the complaint notes, ‘Even the monarchs of England long ago lost the power to raise and spend money without the approval of Parliament.’

“The Congress has a solemn responsibility to defend its exclusive constitutional responsibilities, and protect our system of checks and balances.  The very integrity of our democratic institutions are at stake.  We will not let the President trample over the Constitution.”