By Connor D. Wolf | February 26, 2019
House Democrats on Tuesday were able to pass a resolution aimed at blocking President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration along the southern border.
For months, the federal government has been consumed by the ongoing dispute over border security funding. The fight was so intense it led to a partial government shutdown and threatened a second. The House passed the resolution against the national emergency declaration by a vote of 245 to 182.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) introduced the resolution last week to terminate the emergency declaration. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) helped build support for it in the week leading up to its introduction. She sent a letter to lawmakers and held press conferences to encourage them to back it.
“Each one of us, and every person in public service in our country, takes an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution,” Pelosi said from the floor before the vote. “And that Constitution is about the separation of powers that is being usurped by the executive branch. We in the legislative branch cannot let that happen.”
Trump declared a national emergency after congressional negotiators failed to come close to the $5.7 billion request for border wall funding. The president signed a short-term spending bill that ended the first shutdown; the eventual deal included $1.375 billion for physical barriers.
Related: Dems Introduce Resolution to Block Trump’s Emergency Declaration
“It is the statutes that allow the president to do this,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said hours before the Tuesday vote. “The statutes don’t provide for national emergencies on climate change; they don’t allow for national emergencies on gun violence. But they do allow it for this particular issue and the president is exactly right. There is a crisis at the border.”
The resolution is not likely to get much further now that it has passed the House. The Senate currently has a Republican majority; the president has threatened to veto the resolution. But some Republicans have expressed opposition to the emergency declaration, such as libertarian-leaning Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said during a press conference on Tuesday that he will not handicap the resolution when it comes to his side. He was also briefed along with other party members about the legality of the order. He said lawmakers are in the process of considering its legality but have not drawn conclusions yet.
“It will come over here. It’s privileged — it will come up,” McConnell said. “It can rest as much as 15 days, but I think it will be reasonable to assume that [a] vote will occur before the next Senate recess period. We had a very full discussion on this issue during our conference at noon today with the vice president and a lawyer from the Justice Department.”
Trump has argued the situation at the border constitutes a crisis and that a wall is critical to deterring illegal drugs and criminal gangs from coming into this country. He could possibly free up billions in emergency funds for the wall from various federal reserves through the National Emergencies Act (NEA).
Related: Pelosi Urges Lawmakers to Fight Trump’s Emergency Declaration
“The statute might be interpreted to be used in a reckless manner, but it is precise that it deals with the necessity of military construction and other matters in the course of war that are an emergency,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said before the vote. “But we do not have that … What we have is a person’s desire.”
Trump is facing lawsuits for his emergency declaration. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is leading 16 other states that have sued the administration. Dozens of former national security officials also signed onto a statement that publicly rebuked the emergency declaration on Monday.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) became one of the first major organizations to announce a lawsuit soon after the president made his declaration. The group argued the decision evades congressional funding restrictions in an unprecedented violation of the law. The ACLU also sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to vote for the Tuesday resolution.
American presidents have declared at least 58 states of emergency since lawmakers passed the National Emergencies Act in 1976.
That does not include disaster declarations for weather events, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice. Dozens of emergencies are still in effect because they were extended by other presidents.
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This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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She`s a good one to talk about taking an oath to uphold the constitution. The evil political whore has done everything to destroy our country; including committing TREASON! She is nothing but scum bag criminal. A crack head drunken whore who is brain dead from all her using of illegal drugs and booze.
President Trump will win and the Demonrats will lose...
The DNC got a convicted liar to provide unsubstantiated testimony that the President is a racist. That is about as far as they got. How much of it was his testimony and how much of it was suggested by the fBI special prosecutor we will probably never know.
The reason the DNC needs that border open is how else are they going to get drugs and children to satisfy their perverted electors?
I attended a meeting of the Workers Party in NYC once, right after Allende was removed by the Coup their analysis was that Allende's mistake was he did not arm the people. Why do they want to disarm the people at least legitimate and law abiding citizens?
The drug gangs are the DNCs equivalent of a Mahdi Army like Morsi was attempting to raise in the North sinai before the Egyptian Army removed the threat.
We are edging near that crossroads, if the DNC were to control the border or rather not control it but sell access to the gangs we would have American citizens disarmed and a thriving black market in guns. The last Canadian who went on about how the USA should not have guns and calling attention to how the illegal drugs are killing many more Americans every year than guns, said that if we can not control the border and stop drugs 80% of the Fentanyl comes across near San Diego is a red herring but we can stop guns? Anyone who has been to Central America places like Hondouras know that's a hoot automatic weapons are available for cash, if you see a heavily armed group of men hanging around a building its one of two things, a bank or a gun store.
That is why the perjured testimony for a bitter convitec liar turned state witness by unscrupulous politicos is so despicable the issue of the Wall has nothing to do with racism and there is still nothing to substantiate that President Trump is a racist.
trump is back lets see how he deals with it now im sure this is far from over time to veto
trump is back lets see how he deals with it now im sure this is far from over time to veto
The DNC got a convicted liar to provide unsubstantiated testimony that the President is a racist. That is about as far as they got. How much of it was his testimony and how much of it was suggested by the fBI special prosecutor we will probably never know.
The reason the DNC needs that border open is how else are they going to get drugs and children to satisfy their perverted electors?
I attended a meeting of the Workers Party in NYC once, right after Allende was removed by the Coup their analysis was that Allende's mistake was he did not arm the people. Why do they want to disarm the people at least legitimate and law abiding citizens?
The drug gangs are the DNCs equivalent of a Mahdi Army like Morsi was attempting to raise in the North sinai before the Egyptian Army removed the threat.
We are edging near that crossroads, if the DNC were to control the border or rather not control it but sell access to the gangs we would have American citizens disarmed and a thriving black market in guns. The last Canadian who went on about how the USA should not have guns and calling attention to how the illegal drugs are killing many more Americans every year than guns, said that if we can not control the border and stop drugs 80% of the Fentanyl comes across near San Diego is a red herring but we can stop guns? Anyone who has been to Central America places like Hondouras know that's a hoot automatic weapons are available for cash, if you see a heavily armed group of men hanging around a building its one of two things, a bank or a gun store.
That is why the perjured testimony for a bitter convitec liar turned state witness by unscrupulous politicos is so despicable the issue of the Wall has nothing to do with racism and there is still nothing to substantiate that President Trump is a racist.
President Trump will win and the Demonrats will lose...
She`s a good one to talk about taking an oath to uphold the constitution. The evil political whore has done everything to destroy our country; including committing TREASON! She is nothing but scum bag criminal. A crack head drunken whore who is brain dead from all her using of illegal drugs and booze.