Texas lawmakers think Gov. Rick Perry might be overreaching his own self with regard to the planned deployment of National Guard forces to protect Texans against the influx of … children.
Seems that the governor is using his executive authority to spend $75 million in public money for this deployment, which some lawmakers think is an overreach.
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-politics/2014/08/some-lawmakers-question-perrys-border-funding-move/
Interesting, eh?
I don’t know enough about the details of what kind of power the governor has in these matters, but it does intrigue me that this governor, who’s been so critical of federal overreach by the White House might be getting into a bit of a jam at home over the very same issue.
“The Legislative Budget Board has authority to move money around the budget in between legislative sessions. Perry, however, bypassed formal board action to free $38 million to pay for the Guard in the early stages of its deployment and to help fund a DPS border surge,” the San Antonio Express-News reported in its blog.
State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, says the deployment doesn’t make sense in the first place.
He’s right. It doesn’t. The Guard can do little to stop the flow of children fleeing Central America.
The lame-duck governor, though, says he’s doing it for symbolic reasons.
Whatever. It now might against state law for him to just spend the money willy-nilly.
The irony is fairly rich, don’t you think?