GOP’s Paul signals resolution backing

Sen. Rand Paul is throwing his support behind a resolution that would block President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The move defies a warning from the president and seems to give the Senate enough votes to reject the declaration.

Paul, R-Ky., said in a speech Saturday at the Southern Kentucky Lincoln Day Dinner, a GOP event at Western Kentucky University, that he “can’t vote to give extra-Constitutional powers to the president,” the Bowling Green Daily News reported.

“I can’t vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress,” Paul said, according to the newspaper. “We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing.”

Three other Republican senators have announced they’ll vote “no” — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Paul makes it four, and assuming that all 47 Democrats and their independent allies go against Trump, that would give opponents 51 votes — just past the majority needed.

However, supporters of the resolution lack the 67 total votes in the Senate that would let them override a threatened presidential veto. The vote margin in the House last week — 245 to 182 — was also short of the two-thirds majority, or 290 total votes, required to override a veto there.

Republicans worry that in supporting Trump, they will be giving approval to a move that circumvents the power of the purse granted to Congress in the Constitution. They also are concerned that Trump would siphon money from home-state projects to fund barrier construction.

But if they oppose the move, they face the wrath of not only the president but also his political base.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., spent weeks warning against a national emergency, but then declared his support for the president’s move last month. McConnell faces re-election next year.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who has been critical of Trump’s emergency declaration, delivered a floor speech on Thursday in which he outlined what he described as an alternative way for the president to get the money he wants to build his wall. Alexander has declined to say how he would vote on the disapproval resolution.

Numerous other GOP senators have also expressed reservations about Trump’s move, among them Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida. The Senate is poised to vote on the disapproval resolution later this month.

Asked about Paul’s decision, his spokesman Sergio Gor said it “speaks for itself” and declined to elaborate.

The disapproval resolution is a blow to Trump’s Feb. 15 move to declare an emergency after Congress balked at giving him the money he demanded for his border wall. Trump’s declaration allows him to access $3.6 billion in funds allocated for military construction projects.

That money would be tapped after the administration exhausts funding from other sources, including $1.375 billion provided by Congress; $2.5 billion from a Pentagon counter-drug account that the administration can access without an emergency declaration; and $601 million from a forfeiture fund in the Treasury Department.

During an interview last week with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, Trump urged Republicans not to back the disapproval resolution and said those who do so will “put themselves at great jeopardy.”