Senate OKs border deal Trump to call emergency
The Senate resoundingly approved a border security compromise Thursday that ignores most of President Donald Trump’s demands for building a wall with Mexico but would prevent a new government shutdown. The White House said Trump, as he’s suggested for weeks, would quickly declare a national emergency and per- haps invoke other executive powers to try to shift money to wall-building from elsewhere in the federal budget.
House passage late Thursday night and Trump’s signature were assured, which for now would stamp a bipartisan coda on a nasty melee that’s dominated the initial months of power sharing in Washington.
The specter of the nation- al-emergency declaration has produced widespread opposition in Congress, but Trump is under pressure to soothe his conservative base and avoid looking like he’s surrendered in his wall battle with Congress.
At the White House, Press
Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump would sign the bill and take “other executive action, including a national emergency.” She added, “The president is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect
the border and secure our great country.”
Trump had demanded $5.7 billion to start build- ing more than 200 miles of wall. The bipartisan agree- ment provides under $1.4 billion — enough for just 55 miles of new barriers and fencing.
An emergency declaration and other assertions of exec- utive power to access money are expected to prompt lawsuits and potential votes in Congress aimed at block- ing Trump from diverting money, which could conceivably reach billions of dollars. White House aides and con- gressional Republicans have suggested Trump might tap funds targeted for military construction, disaster relief and counter-drug efforts.
In a surprising development, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would support Trump’s emergency declaration. That was a turnabout for the Kentucky Republican, who like Democrats and many Repub- licans had until now opposed such action.
Democratic opponents of a declaration have said there is no crisis at the bor- der and Trump is merely
sidestepping Congress, while Republicans have warned that future Democratic pres- idents could use the move to force spending on their own priorities like gun control.
But lawmakers from both parties were openly relieved to forestall a fresh federal shutdown and put the border security battle — at least this phase of it — behind them.
Meeting with reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, warned that legal action aimed at blocking Trump’s emergency declaration was an option, but she stopped short of saying it would defi- nitely occur.
“The president is trying to make an end run around Congress,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. She added, “It’s not an emergency what’s happening at the border. It’s a humani- tarian challenge to us.”
No. 2 House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., was more definitive. “House Democrats will challenge this irresponsible declaration,” he said in a statement.
The Senate approved the border security deal by a lopsided 83-16 tally. The House planned to vote on passage in the evening.
Trump’s signature will end this stage of a raucous legislative saga that commenced before Christmas and was ending, almost fittingly, on Valentine’s Day. The low point was the historically long 35-day partial federal shutdown, which Trump sparked and was in full force when Democrats took control of the House.
Trump yielded on the shutdown Jan. 25 after public opinion turned against him and congres s ional Republicans. He’d won not a nickel of the $5.7 billion he’d demanded for his wall but had caused missed pay
checks for legions of federal workers and contractors and lost government services for countless oth
ers. It was a political fiasco for Trump and an early tri
umph for Pelosi.
The fight left both parties dead set against another shutdown. That sentiment weakened Trump’s hand
and fueled the bipartisan deal, a pact that contrasts with the parties’ still-raging differences over health care, taxes and investigations of the president.