Unhappy with deal, Trump to declare state of emergency
Democratic leaders decry ‘a lawless act’
WASHINGTON — Congress lopsidedly approved a border security compromise Thursday that would avert a second painful government shutdown, but a new confrontation was ignited — this time over President Donald Trump’s plan to bypass lawmakers and declare a national emergency to siphon billions from other federal coffers for his wall on the Mexican boundary.
Money in the bill for border barriers, about $1.4 billion, is far below the $5.7 billion Mr. Trump insisted he needed to build a wall along the Mexican boundary and would finance just a quarter of the 200-plus miles he wanted. The White House said he’d sign the legislation but act on his own to get the rest, a move that prompted immediate condemnation from Democrats and threats of lawsuits from states and others who might lose federal money or said Mr. Trump was abusing his authority.
The uproar over what Mr. Trump would do next cast an uncertain shadow over what had been a rare display of bipartisanship in Congress to address the grinding battle between the White House and lawmakers over border security.
The Senate passed the legislation 83-16, with both parties solidly on board. The House followed with a 300-128 tally, with Mr. Trump’s signature planned Friday.
Both margins were above the two-thirds majorities needed to override presidential vetoes, though one wasn’t expected and lawmakers sometime back a president of the same party in such battles.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., was one of the few “no” votes in the Senate.
“I have said repeatedly throughout this impasse that the sensible outcome would be a compromise on border security that funded physical barriers where Customs and Border Protection deemed it necessary,” Mr. Toomey said in a statement. “While the amount is lower than I think optimal, $1.4 billion for physical barriers on the southern border is such a compromise.”
Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, voted for the bill, saying the compromise is even better than the one he had been prepared to vote for before the December shutdown because it includes less money for physical barriers at the border and more restrictions on type.
“He doesn’t get to build a big, beautiful wall. He got $1.35 billion worth of fencing,” Mr. Doyle said.
Lawmakers exuded relief that the agreement had averted a fresh closure of federal agencies just three weeks after a recordsetting 35-day partial shutdown
that drew an unambiguous thumbs-down from the public. That included Mr. Toomey, who at the same time lamented that “it was irresponsible for Congress to pass, without scrutiny, or opportunity for amendments, 1,700-plus pages of spending including hundreds of millions on wasteful and ineffective programs.”
But in announcing that Mr. Trump would sign the accord, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also said he’d take “other executive action, including a national emergency,”
In an unusual joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said such a declaration would be “a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract” from Mr. Trump’s failure to force Mexico to pay for the wall, as he has promised for years.
Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer also said “Congress will defend our constitutional authorities.” They declined to say whether that meant lawsuits or votes on resolutions to prevent Mr. Trump from unilaterally shifting money to wall-building, with aides saying they would wait to see what he does.
Despite widespread opposition in Congress to proclaiming an emergency, including by some Republicans, Mr. Trump is under pressure to act unilaterally to soothe his conservative base and avoid looking as if he has surrendered in his wall battle.
The abrupt announcement of Mr. Trump’s plans came late in an afternoon of rumblings that the volatile president — who’d strongly hinted he’d sign the agreement but never definitively — was shifting toward rejecting it. That would have infused fresh chaos into a fight both parties are desperate to leave behind, a thought that drove some lawmakers to seek heavenly help.
“Let’s all pray that the president will have wisdom to sign the bill so the government doesn’t shut down,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said after a chaplain opened Thursday’s Senate session.
Moments before Ms. Sanders spoke at the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took to the Senate floor to announce Mr. Trump’s decisions to sign the bill and declare an emergency.
Sen. John Cornyn, RTexas, told reporters there were two hours of phone calls between Mr. McConnell and the White House before there were assurances that Mr. Trump would sign. In a surprising development, Mr. McConnell said he would support Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration, a turnabout for the Kentucky Republican, who like many lawmakers had opposed such action.
Democrats say there is no crisis at the border and Mr. Trump is merely sidestepping Congress. And some Republicans warn that future Democratic presidents could use his precedent to force spending on their own priorities such as gun control. GOP critics included Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who said emergency declarations are for “major natural disasters or catastrophic events” and said its use would be of “dubious constitutionality.”
White House aides and congressional Republicans have said that besides an emergency, Mr. Trump might assert other authorities that could conceivably put him within reach of billions of dollars. The money could come from funds targeted for military construction, disaster relief and counterdrug efforts.
Congressional aides say there is $21 billion in military construction money that could potentially be used by Mr. Trump if he declares a national emergency. But according to the law the money has to be used in support of U.S. armed forces, they say.
With many of the Democrats’ liberal base voters adamantly against Mr. Trump’s aggressive attempts to curb immigration, four declared presidential hopefuls opposed the bill in the Senate: Cory Booker of New Jersey, New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota voted for it, as did Vermont independent Bernie Sanders, who is expected to join the field soon.