Donald Trump Is Facing A Republican Revolt Over His National Emergency Declaration For Border Wall Funding
Donald Trump is “on the brink of revolt” among his own Republican colleagues in Congress over his national emergency declaration for funding for a border wall, The Hill is reporting.
Last month, as reported at the time by The Inquisitr, Trump declared a national emergency after failing to get funding for a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’re going to be signing today and registering national emergency and it’s a great thing to do because we have an invasion of drugs, invasion of gangs, invasion of people and it’s unacceptable.”
As The Atlantic reports, presidential declarations of national emergencies don’t require Congressional approval. However, Congress can undo a national emergency declaration by passing a resolution, which must pass in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. That process has been in play since the 1970s when Congress passed a series of rules intended to limit the scope of presidential national emergency declarations, which can give the POTUS powers that aren’t normally given to him in the Constitution.
And in the case of the border wall declaration, it appears that Congress is prepared to do just that: vote for a resolution overturning that declaration.
In the House of Representatives, which is controlled by a Democratic majority, the declaration’s failure in the House was almost a sure thing as soon as Trump signed it. However, in the Senate, which is controlled by a slim Republican majority, it would have taken a few Republican Senators to go against the president and join Democrats in voting against it.
Senate Democrats likely now have enough votes to block President Donald Trump’s call for a national emergency. https://t.co/3dSyQd8NvU
— VICE News (@VICENews) March 4, 2019
As of this writing, it appears that all Senate Democrats, and enough Senate Republicans, are prepared to vote to overturn the declaration, which means that Trump would be forced to issue a veto – if the bill doesn’t pass by a veto-proof majority, that is.
Those Republicans include Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who as Vice News reports, wrote an op-ed piece on Sunday detailing how he believes Trump is trying to use powers that aren’t Constitutionally his.
“The broad principle of separation of powers in the Constitution delegates the power of the purse to Congress.”
Similarly, Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander last week publicly urged Trump to stand down on the issue.
It remains unclear, as of this writing, when Congress will vote on its resolution to disapprove of Trump’s declaration. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has said that he will bring a vote to the Senate before March 15, when Congress adjourns for a recess. However, anonymous Republican staffers tell The Hill that a vote is actually likely in the next week.
