The Senate passed a resolution on Thursday that would end President Donald Trump’s national emergency on the border with less than a veto-proof majority; however, the president has already threatened to veto the legislation.
The Senate passed on a resolution Thursday, 59-41, that would end President Donald Trump’s national emergency. The vote featured strong Democrat support for the bill and a surprising amount of Republicans voting for it. The House passed its version of the resolution in February with the help of 13 Republicans.
Several Senate Republicans voted against President Trump’s national emergency.
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rob Portman (R-OH), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Roy Blunt (R-MO) voted in favor of eliminating Trump’s national emergency, which would make it harder to secure America’s southern border.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who previously signaled he would vote to end the emergency, said he will back Trump’s emergency after Trump said he will work with Republicans on a president’s national emergency authority. Tillis is up for re-election in 2020.
Sens. Cory Gardner (R-CO), Mike Braun (R-IN), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Pat Roberts (R-KS) voted in favor of the national emergency.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted against the national emergency.
Many Senate Republicans have stood by the president and have said Trump is right to take action to secure the southern border.
Sen. Graham said in a statement on Thursday, “I voted with President Trump and rejected Nancy Pelosi’s motion of disapproval regarding the emergency declaration to build a barrier on the southern border.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said ahead of the vote that she will vote to keep Trump’s national emergency, stating:
Since Congress gave emergency powers to the executive branch in 1976 under the National Emergencies Act, presidents from both political parties have declared national emergencies in the United States over situations far less dire than the security and humanitarian crisis that is currently plaguing the southern border. The president and Congress must take swift action to secure our border, protect our citizens, and defend our sovereignty. I support President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, and I reject the resolution of disapproval.
Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) told Breitbart News recently that, despite some media reports, there remains a “five-alarm crisis” at the southern border.
“There’s a five-alarm crisis going on down there. It’s not just the human traffic; it’s the drug traffic,” Perdue said in a statement to Breitbart News. “This is not just about building the wall; it’s about closing the loopholes and getting border patrol agents the resources they need.”
The Georgia conservative traveled in February to the southern border with Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and witnessed first-hand the border crisis. Perdue told Breitbart News that the border crisis was “staggering.” The two Republicans saw illegal crossing hotspots and received real-time briefings from border patrol agents.
Daines told Breitbart News that he backs Trump’s national emergency, contending that without a secure border, every state is a border state.
“Montana is a northern border state with a southern border problem. Our communities all over Montana are being torn apart by the flood of Mexican meth coming through the southern border,” Daines said. “We must protect our citizens and secure the border.”
Many Republican senators have said they oppose any form of executive overreach, which includes former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal alien amnesty.
However, one federal district judge ruled in August 2018 that DACA was illegal, whereas many lawyers have argued that Trump has the authority under the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to reappropriate money to build the wall.
The Senate vote announcement comes as a Morning Consult/Politico poll suggests that nearly three-quarters of Republican voters would more likely vote for a candidate if they backed Trump’s national emergency on the border.
In an interview with Breitbart News this week, President Trump said he found it “hard to believe” that any Republican would vote against his efforts to secure the border.
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