Congressman Dave Reichert always claims the high ground as ex-sheriff in understanding and supporting the rule of law. Yet in July he voted to undermine the rules for funding U.S. defense by supporting HRes 431, HR 2810: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, and HR 3219: Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2018.

Normally the House Rules Committee creates resolutions that bring bills to the House floor for consideration. The resolution he supported not only introduced the defense authorization bill (HR 2810) for consideration, but also struck a section that contained language prohibiting the use of defense dollars for building any barriers along the international US border.

In fact, it then allowed the defense appropriations bill (HR 3219) to contain $1.5 billion for building Trump’s wall, despite the wall being a law enforcement “tool” and not a defense effort (normally military and law enforcement spending are kept segregated because the military isn’t meant to be used for law enforcement—unless the country’s under martial law).

The U.S. rules and divisions exist to keep things precise and lawful. Mr. Reichert seems more interested in pushing Trump’s agenda than following the normal rules and conventions of the body he serves.

Eve Gordon

Issaquah