The White House in the United States is pressuring Senate Republicans to back the President when a bill to nullify his national emergency on the border is put to a vote in the Upper House in the weeks ahead.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives late in February passed a resolution to terminate President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency that allow him to reallocate government funding to build a southern border wall despite Congressional disapproval of such a move.
The resolution will head to the Senate for a vote before the end of next week. The long-running battle over President Trump’s border wall and his subsequent declaration of an emergency has seen Congress refuse to bow to pressure from the White House that has been quietly lobbying Republican Senators to stand with the President and not join Democrats in trying to block the President’s unilateral action.
At least four Republican Senators, including Rand Paul of Kentucky, have already indicated they would join Democrats providing supporters of the resolution with a simple majority.
“I will vote for the motion to disapprove of this and I will continue to speak out. I do believe that there is at least 10 republicans, no votes. We’ll see, possibly more. I think virtually everybody in our caucus is troubled by this. Even when you hear Republicans say they are going to support this, they are troubled by the President, and they are troubled by the fact that this is executive power that is being expanded.”
The House voted in February by a 245 to 182 majority to terminate the President’s declaration of a national emergency with 13 Republican lawmakers joining Democrats in that vote.
“We are not going to give any president Democratic or Republican a blank check to shred the Constitution of the United States. We would be delinquent in our duties as members of Congress if we did not overturn what the president is proposing. He is asking each and every one of us to turn our backs on the oath of office that we took to the Constitution of the United States,” says Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has argued that the President has the absolute authority to declare the national emergency, stating that had lawmakers done what they were elected to do on the front end, the President would not have had to act. Trump has vowed to veto the resolution if it passes the Senate.
“On the wall? Will I veto it? One 100% and I don’t think it survives a veto. We have too many smart people that want border security, so I can’t imagine it could survive a veto. But I will veto it.”
Congress can override the potential veto if two-thirds of both chambers then vote again to block the national emergency. But that prospect seems fairly remote given the popularity that President Trump enjoys within the Republican Party at around 90% – and the political costs Republican lawmakers could suffer in the 2020 elections if they are seen to obstruct this President’s agenda.
So what seems more likely is that this matter will work its way through the courts with multiple lawsuits filed in different states likely ending up at the Supreme Court in Washington where President Trump highly rates his chances of success.
