House Democrats fail to override Trump veto on wall

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump secured a victory Tuesday over House Democrats who failed to garner the bipartisan votes needed to override a veto that leaves the president’s national emergency declaration intact and allows the White House to divert Pentagon funds to build a border wall.

Trump declared the emergency on Feb. 26 and immediately met resistance from Democrats and Republicans who later passed resolutions of disapproval to terminate the declaration.

But House Democrats could not muster the two-thirds majority needed Tuesday to override the veto, allowing Trump to tap $3.6 billion in military construction funds designated for projects at various installations — including $97 million for four Nevada projects at Creech AFB, Nellis AFB and a National Guard center in North Las Vegas.

The override vote failed 248-181.

Nevada’s congressional delegation voted along party lines, with Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, all Democrats, voting to override and Republican Rep. Mark Amodei voting to sustain the veto.

“Donald Trump promised Mexico would pay for the wall and instead he stole from our troops to pay for some of it,” Titus said.

All of the Nevada military construction projects where funding could be redirected are in the congressional district represented by Horsford, who has aggressively questioned Trump administration budget officials over the proposal.

“There is no emergency on our southern border,” Horsford said.

Trump made the building of a border wall a key pledge in his 2016 presidential campaign and famously said he’d make Mexico finance the structure.

His request for $5.7 billion to build a portion of the wall was rejected earlier this year by Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate who cobbled together a last-minute spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which included $1.375 billion for fencing, technology and other border security measures.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called for the override vote, knowing it would likely fail, to put vulnerable Republicans in swing districts on record of supporting or rejecting the president’s border policies and a wall that is favored by the GOP base but opposed by most voters, according to national opinion polls.

Trump and his Republican supporters in the House also see the vote as an election-year gambit, and have sought to characterize Democrats as soft on border security and favoring illegal immigration.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus, urged Trump to declare an emergency to build a wall Meadows said was needed to stop illegal immigration, criminal gangs and drug smuggling.

Still, 13 Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the resolution, 245-182, last month. The Senate followed with a bipartisan vote on measure to terminate the declaration, 59-41.

Several GOP senators cited constitutional concerns and the White House attempt to circumvent Congress, which has authority to set and allocate funds for federal spending priorities.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that even though other presidents have declared national emergencies, none have done so to redirect funds to a pet project after Congress has rejected a request.

Even with the failed vote to override, the Trump declaration faces legal hurdles. Sixteen states, including Nevada, have filed a motion in California seeking a halt to any redistribution of funds.

And landowners in Texas, where a portion of the wall would be built, have filed legal challenges against a government “taking” of property where the wall would be constructed.

“While I am disappointed that many of my Republican colleagues have thrown the Constitution aside, I am confident that our courts will not,” Titus said.

The Nevada congresswoman said Trump’s “unconstitutional decision to declare a fake emergency cannot stand.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.