The GOP Senate leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, has said there's much that President-elect Donald Trump can do without Congress.
Turns out Trump's promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico may be one such act.
Trump adviser Rudolph W. Giuliani said Thursday that the Trump administration could begin building the wall with executive action, rearranging money already approved by Congress for other aspects of immigration enforcement.
"He can do it by executive order by just reprogramming money," Giuliani told CNN.
Congress, he said, has already approved a wall "to certain portions of the border that hasn't even been built yet. So you could take a year building that out with what has been approved."
President Barack Obama's use of executive power, including immigration actions that temporarily shield law-abiding immigrants from deportation, roiled Congress as an overreach. Some Republicans sued to stop him.
Now, however, Trump's use of executive authority to accomplish his goals may come as a welcome relief for Republicans. Outsourcing the work to the White House would relieve Congress of taking tough votes on controversial issues that lawmakers might rather avoid.
