House votes to terminate Trump’s national emergency declaration

WASHINGTON — House Democrats delivered a rebuke to President Donald Trump on Tuesday with a vote to terminate his national emergency declaration and deny him the ability to use Pentagon funds to build portions of a border wall.

A resolution of disapproval passed the House on a 245-182 vote, with 13 Republicans joining Democrats to reject the president’s proposal to redirect funds from military and law enforcement accounts to build the wall and fulfill a campaign pledge.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the declaration was an attempt by the executive branch to circumvent the authority given Congress in the Constitution to legislate spending.

The founding fathers of the country rejected the idea “of a monarch,” Pelosi said as she urged lawmakers in both major political parties to honor their oath, faith “and allegiance to the Constitution.”

Republicans branded the vote as political hypocrisy.

Nevada Democratic Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee voted with the majority to pass the resolution. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei voted against it.

Horsford said the resolution “protects the founders’ constitutional intent by ensuring separation between the executive and legislative branch. There is no emergency on our southern border.”

Titus said she would use “all possible legal and legislative remedies to prevent President Trump from constructing this political vanity project.”

The state’s two Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, have criticized the president’s declaration as reckless, unneeded and part of an assault by the administration on immigrants and refugees.

The resolution to terminate the emergency declaration could also pass in the Senate, where three Republicans — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have said they will join Democrats.

Murkowski called the president’s declaration an executive branch overreach.

Senate outcome unclear

Republicans can afford only four defections to avoid a defeat that would embarrass the president. GOP senators huddled with Vice President Mike Pence at their weekly caucus luncheon in an effort to shore up support for the president’s action.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would not predict the outcome of the vote on the resolution, and leaders in both parties were unsure when the vote would take place.

By law, the Senate must vote on the resolution within 18 days of House passage.

Senate Democrats remained united in opposition to the president’s emergency declaration, calling it an unconstitutional power grab that circumvents the authority of Congress and redirects money for important military projects for readiness and national security.

The Trump administration has identified $3.6 billion in military project funding that could be redirected for construction of the border wall, and $3.1 billion from military drug interdiction programs and the asset forfeiture accounts.

Nevada could lose $97 million from four projects at Creech Air Force Base, Nellis Air Force Base and a National Guard readiness center in North Las Vegas.

Former GOP lawmakers and a bipartisan group of past national security officers under previous Republican and Democratic presidents urged Congress to reject Trump’s declaration, stating in letters that no crisis exists on the Southwest border.

Democrats also have declared the national emergency as a false premise to fund a campaign promise that Trump repeatedly said Mexico would pay for.

Republicans in both chambers shot back.

“Democrats’ refusal to acknowledge the problems and crisis at our southern border is pure political hypocrisy,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Trump vows veto

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told a news conference that Democratic governors in Arizona and New Mexico both declared the border a crisis in 2005 and accused the federal government of failing to act.

But House Democrats have cited statistics by the Department of Homeland Security that show illegal border crossings and arrests at a 40-year low, and a dramatic decrease since 2006.

Even if both chambers of Congress pass the resolution to terminate the president’s emergency declaration, Trump has vowed to veto the bill when it lands on his desk.

That would force the House to muster a two-thirds majority to override the veto, a task that the resolution’s sponsor, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said is a high hurdle.

The political battle over border wall funding follows a historic 35-day partial government shutdown after Republican and Democratic lawmakers refused to include $5.7 billion in a spending bill for Homeland Security and other departments.

Trump eventually signed a bill to avoid another costly shutdown, but used a Rose Garden news conference on Feb. 15 to highlight what he called a humanitarian crisis at the border also overrun by narcotics traffickers and criminals.

The president interjected the deaths of four people near Reno, Nevada, and linked to an undocumented immigrant in the debate over crime related to illegal immigration and a need for the border wall.

Lawmakers included $1.375 billion in the spending bill for fencing and other border security measures, far below the $5.7 billion sought by the president for construction of portions of a wall, mainly in South Texas.

The battle over the border wall could stretch into 2020. The Senate vote is seen as uncomfortable for Republican lawmakers in states where Democrats gained ground in the midterm election.

Trump capitalized on the immigration issue in 2016, and has sought to paint Democrats as soft on border security as he prepares for a re-election campaign.

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