Portman won’t say whether he supports ‘emergency’
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman doesn’t care for President Donald Trump’s declaration of an emergency.
The Ohio Republican would have preferred for Congress to fully fund Trump’s request to extend the wall on the U.s.-mexico border.
And Trump’s move to circumvent legislative authority and grab other federal funds to erect border barriers is troubling and could set a bad precedent, Portman says.
But, all that said, Portman still refuses to say whether he supports or opposes Trump’s emergency declaration. And he won’t tell how he will vote when Congress takes up an expected resolution seeking to overturn the action.
“I supported the president on the border,” Portman said Thursday while in Columbus. “I do think we need to secure the Southern border in the ways the president laid out,” particularly to intercept and deter drug couriers.
Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper chided the senator for failing to take a stance.
“The only emergency I’ve seen is the need for steelrod surgery to replace Rob Portman’s lost backbone ... this is a fundamental issue of the separation of powers and the power of the presidency. This is not a policy decision. He has become Donald Trump’s lapdog,” Pepper said.
Though a resolution of disapproval to set aside Trump’s declaration is likely to pass the Democratic-held House, it faces longer odds in the Senate, given the 53-47 Republican control of the chamber.
If it does pass both the House and Senate, it would be unlikely to survive a Trump veto.
Portman declined to say how he would vote on the resolution to reverse Trump, whom he already has endorsed for re-election in 2020.
“I’ll see what it says,” Portman said. “Again, I support his overall plan.”
Portman is concerned that legal challenges to Trump’s emergency declaration, and labeling it a manufactured crisis, could block Trump from quickly improving border security while cases reach decisions.
“That is one of the problems of the national emergency,” he said. “I don’t see that the next year or two it’s likely that funding could be used.”
Portman also said he will continue to press for legislation to prohibit government shutdowns.
“I think shutdowns are stupid. I don’t think they make sense for taxpayers. I don’t think they make sense for federal workers and their families.”
Also Thursday, the senator met with 16 female inmates at the Franklin County Correction Center who participate in a 12-week rehabilitative program for drug addicts to help them prepare for successful lives once they are released from jail.
The program is funded from $881,070 in federal grants that the county received from Portman’s Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which has provided $32 million to Ohio treatment and recovery programs.
Called upon to provide the “quote of the day,” Portman shared a Winston Churchill classic with the women: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”
The prisoners praised the program, which includes post-release help, with one telling the senator: “I’m going to make it this time.”