The Senate voted 59 to 41 Thursday to overturn the national emergency declared by President Trump last month, passing a resolution rejecting his declaration that had already cleared the House.
Trump declared the national emergency last month in order to appropriate $8 billion for the construction of the southern-border wall that was his signature campaign promise. The president made the move after Congress refused to grant him the $5.7 billion he’d requested for the wall, appropriating only $1.375 billion for non-wall border-security measures.
The congressional rebuke of the president was bipartisan, with twelve Republicans — Senators Mitt Romney, Lamar Alexander, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Rand Paul, Roy Blunt, Roger Wicker, Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Jerry Moran, and Mike Lee — voting in favor.
“Never before has a president asked for funding, Congress has not provided it, and the president then has used the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to spend the money anyway,” Alexander said. “The problem with this is that after a Revolutionary War against a king, our nation’s founders gave to Congress the power to approve all spending so that the president would not have too much power. This check on the executive is a crucial source of our freedom.”
Trump, after the vote, signaled on Twitter that he intended to issue the first veto of his presidency in response.
I look forward to VETOING the just passed Democrat inspired Resolution which would OPEN BORDERS while increasing Crime, Drugs, and Trafficking in our Country. I thank all of the Strong Republicans who voted to support Border Security and our desperately needed WALL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2019