President Trump’s controversial executive orders over the weekend extending coronavirus relief appear to be legally solid, according to former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.
Mulvaney told “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business on Monday that he reviewed the four orders and found it “fascinating” to see how the White House “structured these things.”
“It looks like a lot of it comes out of money that was already appropriated in the CARES Act and then run through the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] through the Stafford Act — that’s a very powerful piece of legislation that when Congress passed many years ago gave every administration a great deal of authority and great deal of discretion,” Mulvaney said.
The extensions to the unemployment benefits, for example, come from the CARES Act, he said.
Trump issued the orders after the White House failed to reach an agreement with Congress on a new relief bill. Critics have raised legal questions about some of the orders, because the Constitution gives Congress the power to control federal spending. Trump said the orders would extend enhanced unemployment benefits of $400 a week. That figure is lower than the $600 benefit that expired at the end of last month. The White House says it’s intent is to provide needed assistance while avoiding creating an incentive to not return to work.
Trump also ordered an extension of a moratorium on evictions and the suspension of student loan repayments. And, fulfilling a longtime objective, he deferred payroll tax collection for those earning less than $100,000 a year.
Mulvaney noted the CARES Act appropriated about $150 billion to DHS, and less than half of it has been spent.
“And what it looks like the president’s trying to do is go in there and say, ‘OK, I’ll redirect this money that Congress has already appropriated,'” he said.
Mulvaney, formerly Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, told Fox Business it “looks like [the orders] could be fairly well backed up legally,” although he has not “had the chance to do the cross-references and so forth.”
“But it’s the type of thing that the Office of Management and Budget used to work on all the time so my guess is they’ve done their homework on this and can probably make most of it stick,” he said.
Filling in for Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business’ Dagen McDowell pointed out to Mulvaney that Democratic governors need to “get on-board” with the $400 weekly payment because Trump’s order requires that 25% of it must be funded by the states.
New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday in a conference call with reporters that it’s “laughable” to expect New York to fund the program.
Mulvaney acknowledged that Cuomo “has the right not to participate.”
But he said it would be difficult for Cuomo to maintain that stance and “stay on the sidelines” if Republican governors decide to participate and it “starts working in those states.”
