House Dems introduce measure to revoke Trump border edict

[stymiegreen]

House Dems introduce measure to revoke Trump border edict

https://apnews.com/95f4e11d91bb420196ab ... _medium=AP

By ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats on Friday introduced a resolution to block the national emergency declaration that President Donald Trump issued to fund his long-sought wall along the U.S-Mexico border.

The move sets up a fight that could result in Trump’s first veto. It starts the clock on a constitutional clash between Trump and Democrats and sets up a vote by the full House as soon as next week.

The Democratic-controlled House is sure to pass the measure, and the GOP-run Senate may adopt it as well despite Trump’s opposition.

Any Trump veto would likely be sustained, but the upcoming battle will test Republican support for Trump’s move, which even some of his allies view as a stretch — and a slap at lawmakers’ control over the power of the federal purse.


A staff aide introduced the measure during a short pro forma session of the House in which Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., presided over an almost empty chamber.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has promised that her chamber will “move swiftly” to pass the measure, predicting in a letter to colleagues that “the resolution will be referred to the Senate and then sent to the President’s desk.”

Should the House and the Senate initially approve the measure, Congress seems unlikely to muster the two-thirds majorities in each chamber that would be needed later to override a certain Trump veto.

The measure to block Trump’s edict will be closely watched in the Senate, where moderates such as Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., have signaled they would back it. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is only a reluctant supporter of Trump on the topic.

The battle is over an emergency declaration Trump has issued to access billions of dollars beyond what Congress has authorized to start erecting border barriers. Building the wall was the most visible trademark of Trump’s presidential campaign.

Congress last week approved a vast spending bill providing nearly $1.4 billion to build 55 miles (89 kilometers) of border barriers in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley while preventing a renewed government shutdown. That measure represented a rejection of Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to construct more than 200 miles (322 kilometers).

Besides signing the bill, Trump also declared a national emergency and used other authorities that he says give him access to an additional $6.6 billion for wall building. That money would be transferred from a federal asset forfeiture fund, Defense Department anti-drug efforts and a military construction fund. Federal officials have yet to identify which projects would be affected.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, is the resolution’s sponsor and has already garnered support from a majority of the Democratic-controlled House as co-sponsors.

Castro’s measure says Trump’s emergency declaration “is hereby terminated.” Castro chairs the 38-member Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Pelosi wrote that the Republican president’s “decision to go outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process violates the Constitution and must be terminated.”

[Charliesheen]

Is selective non enforcement of laws something to get upset aboot?

[QillerDaemon]

Good! We don't need Trump's fucking wall.

[AnalHamster]

It'll pass, but not with a veto proof majority. It'll at least force the hardcore trump cucks willing to betray their oath of office to reveal themselves on the record and humiliate McConnell, who is single handedly destroying the constitution.

But yeah, ultimately it'll be down to the courts to defend the constitution on this. Worth noting though, that when the law was passed a simple majority would actually have blocked it with a presidential veto not allowed. An SC decision termed that the legislative veto and called it unconstitutional, requiring a supermajority to override the presidential veto of a joint resolution. May be a factor in the case when they look at the intent of the law - the direct stated intent of the legislators who passed it was that the thing that is about to happen within 18 days would have blocked trump's action.

[CaptQuint]

[CaptQuint]

Donnie is the biggest conman of them all ya dupe

[Wut]

So he’s making good on his promise. Good

I'm happy charlie and Biker have something to hook their wagon to now.

[CaptQuint]

[AnalHamster]

Rand Paul has joined the defectors over the senate resolution, that's enough votes to pass it and force trump's first veto.

[CaptQuint]

Cue the ballwashers with their erections

Trump gonna veto that soooo hard, stupid cucks #BuildTheWall

[AnalHamster]

He's only able to veto it at all because of a 1983 SC decision, INS v Chadha. When congress wrote the law they gave themselves precisely this check, passing a resolution with simple majorities, and at the time a resolution couldn't be vetoed since it isn't a law. They even stuck the 18 day limit on it so senators couldn't filibuster or deny it a vote. The SC giving the president a veto on it massively shifted the balance of power to the executive, now only the SC can swing it back by exercising the oversight they denied congress.