Senate Passes Not-An-Emergency Resolution, Setting Up Trump’s Veto

Ken AshfordCongress, Immigration and Xenophobia, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

The Senate delivered a high-profile rebuke to President Donald Trump over his signature agenda issue Thursday when 12 Republicans joined Democrats to overturn the President’s national emergency border declaration.

The vote was 59-41, an overwhelming vote against the President’s executive action.Lawmakers don’t have enough votes, however, to override a certain veto from the President, but passage of the resolution in the Senate after it passed the House last month is nevertheless an embarrassing blow to Trump delivered by his own party over the President’s top campaign pledge of a wall at the US-Mexico border.

The setback for the President also comes on the heels of another high-profile break with his administration after the Senate voted just one day earlier to curtail US military support for a Saudi-led war in Yemen, which has created a humanitarian crisis in that country.Senate Republicans have struggled for weeks over how to vote on the resolution to overturn the national emergency.

The vote forced many to choose between loyalty to a President unafraid to attack members of his party who defy him and an emergency declaration that conservative critics describe as executive overreach and warn could set a precedent used by Democratic presidents to declare emergencies over liberal priorities such as action on climate change.”Declaring a national emergency to access different funds sets a dangerous new precedent,” GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio warned in remarks on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “

“It opens the door for future presidents to implement just about any policy they want.”The senator went on to say, “a future President could seize industries … a future President may well say that climate change is a national emergency and use emergency authorities to implement the Green New Deal,” referencing a sweeping progressive policy proposal to tackle global warming.

The GOP Senators who voted to overturn Trump’s national emergency declaration:

Lamar Alexander
Roy Blunt
Susan Collins
Mike Lee
Jerry Moran
Lisa Murkowski
Rand Paul
Rob Portman
Mitt Romney
Marco Rubio
Pat Toomey
Roger Wicker

That’s ridiculous reasoning from Sasse: he agrees with the resolution but is voting “no” for it because Pelosi is being political. Huh???

Trump was quick to respond… on Twitter of course:

He probably thinks that is how you veto — by screaming it on Twitter.