Resolution passed to overturn Trump emergency
Republicans join Democrats in House on vote, sending measure to GOP-led Senate
The House passed a resolution to overturn U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the southern border as majority Democrats painted an apocalyptic portrait of a lawless chief executive who is out to gut the Constitution.
The 245-182 tally on Tuesday was mostly along party lines, with 13 Republicans defecting to side with Democrats on a vote that effectively became a test of GOP loyalty to Trump. Despite their frequent complaints of executive overreach during U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, most Republicans fell in line with Trump’s decision to try to circumvent Congress to get billions of dollars for his border wall. As a result, the vote fell well short of the two-thirds majority that would be required to overcome Trump’s threatened veto.
Democrats argued that Trump’s claim of a crisis at the border was baseless, and that he was embarking on the road to dictatorship by unilaterally declaring an emergency to try to get money from U.S. taxpayers to fulfil a campaign promise.
“We are not going to give any president, Democratic or Republican, a blank cheque to shred the Constitution of the United States,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the floor before the vote. Holding up a pocket copy of the Constitution, she asked Republicans: “Is your oath of office to Donald Trump, or is your oath of office to the Constitution of the United States?”
Republicans countered that Demo- crats were ignoring a very real crisis at the border, and said Trump was within his rights to declare a national emergency, since he was acting under provisions of a law passed by Congress, the National Emergencies Act of 1976. Tuesday’s vote was the first time since passage of the law that the House has invoked pro- visions allowing for passage of a disapproval resolution to nullify a presidential emergency declaration.
“There is a national emergency at the southern border that the Democrats will declare today doesn’t exist,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Trump issued the emergency declaration on Feb. 15 as part of a deal to keep the government open after a 35-day partial shutdown over Christmas and January. The president agreed to sign a spending bill to keep the government funded through Sept. 30 while providing $1.375 billion (U.S.) for 55 miles of fencing along the border in Texas, but he said he needed billions more. The plans to redirect an additional $6.7 billion from several sources, including $3.6 billion from military construction projects that can be accessed via the emergency declaration.