House OKs Dems' bill blocking emergency
WASHINGTON — Democrats ignored a veto threat and rammed legislation through the House Tuesday that would stymie President Donald Trump's bid for billions of extra dollars for his border wall, escalating a clash over whether he was abusing his powers to advance his paramount campaign pledge.
The House's 245-182 vote to block Trump's national emergency declaration throws the political hot potato to the Republicanrun Senate, where there were already enough GOP defections to edge it to the cusp of passage. Vice President Mike Pence used a lunch with Republican senators at the Capitol to try keeping them aboard, citing a dangerous crisis at the border, but there were no signs he'd succeeded.
“I personally couldn't handicap the outcome at this point,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who's planning a vote within the next three weeks.
Senate passage would force Trump's first veto, which Congress would surely lack the votes to override. But the showdown was forcing Republicans to cast uncomfortable votes pitting their support for a president wildly popular with GOP voters against fears that his expansive use of emergency powers would invite future Democratic presidents to do likewise for their own pet policies.
Rep. Kendra Horn, D-Oklahoma City, was the only one of the five Oklahomans in the U.S. House to vote for the resolution.
She said, “When I took the oath of office, I swore to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. Our country's founders gave the power of the purse to Congress, not the President. This is not an emergency, it is a blatant constitutional violation, and it strips billions of dollars from our armed forces.”
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, said he agreed the southern border was a national emergency because of drug smuggling and human trafficking. And he said Trump was within his constitutional authority to make the declaration and use money appropriated for other purposes.
Trump warned Democrats that he could take the step of declaring an emergency, but Democratic leaders refused to negotiate a deal that gave him more of the funding he sought for a border wall, Cole said.
“They called what they thought was his bluff and it wasn't a bluff,” Cole said.
Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne, said, “Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have voted time and time again to secure our nation's borders and improve security at our ports of entry. While I am cautious of the use of national emergencies which reprograms appropriated funds, I am committed to addressing the ongoing crisis at our Southern border.”
Underscoring their desire to avoid a tally suggesting that Trump's hold on lawmakers was weakening, House Republican leaders worked to keep the number of GOP supporters below 53. That's how many would be needed to reach a two-thirds majority of 288 votes, assuming all Democrats vote “yes,” the margin required for a veto override.
Thirteen House Republicans joined all voting Democrats Tuesday to support the Democratic resolution.
The White House wrote to lawmakers formally threatening to veto the legislation. The letter said blocking the emergency declaration would “undermine the administration's ability to respond effectively to the ongoing crisis at the Southern Border.”
Republicans said Democrats were driven by politics and a desire to oppose Trump at every turn, and said Trump had clear authority to declare an emergency to protect the country. They also defended the president's claims of a security crisis along the boundary with Mexico, which he has said is ravaged by drug smugglers, human traffickers and immigrants trying to sneak into the U.S. illegally.
“We are at war on the Southern border with the drug cartels,” said Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas.
Trump has asserted that barriers would stop drugs from Mexico from entering the U.S. In fact, government figures show that 90 percent of drugs intercepted from Mexico are caught at ports of entry, not remote areas where barriers would be constructed.
Democrats said Republicans repeatedly accused former President Barack Obama of flouting the Constitution, which gives Congress control over spending, but are ignoring Trump's effort to do the same.