Pelosi Begins Drive to Block Trump’s Emergency Declaration

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday began her push to overturn President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration, scheduling a House vote for Tuesday on legislation that would end the declaration, a timeline meant to force congressional Republicans to choose quickly between their president and the prerogatives of their branch of government.

With little doubt that Pelosi can muster the House votes to block the declaration, her goal is to raise pressure on Republicans to defend the power granted to Congress by the Constitution to control federal spending. Democrats will need to pick up a handful of Senate Republicans to pass the resolution of disapproval, which is a possibility.

That would force Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency, an action he said Friday was “100 percent” certain. From there, supporters would need the votes of two-thirds of Congress to override that veto, a much taller order.

But the resolution will force Republicans in both chambers to make a stark choice, and defections are all but definite. Democrats are appealing to conservatives to join them in defending what Pelosi called Congress’ “exclusive power of the purse.”

“This issue transcends partisan politics,” Pelosi told reporters in a phone call Friday, adding, “It’s about patriotism.”

Trump, with his declaration, hopes to divert $3.6 billion from military construction projects to build his promised wall along the southwestern border, effectively going around Congress to secure money that lawmakers have repeatedly refused to give him. Multiple lawsuits have already been filed to have the maneuver declared unconstitutional, but the simplest way to block it is for Congress to overturn the declaration through mechanisms set up by the National Emergencies Act of 1976.

“We prepared for the worst, because the president right now is engaged in the worst,” said Pelosi, speaking from Laredo, Texas, where she said she planned to tour the southwestern border with other lawmakers. She declined to say if the House would formally support any legal action in court but said that lawmakers were still considering additional legal steps.

“The president’s act is lawless — it does violence to our Constitution and therefore our democracy,” Pelosi said.

Republican leaders promised to muster enough votes in the House to sustain Trump’s veto.

“Declaring a national emergency is a sobering act, which is why Congress enacted a statute governing when and how the president can take this action,” said Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. “House Democrats’ angst over Congress’ power of the purse is unwarranted, especially since the commander in chief’s authority to redirect military funds for a national emergency is affirmed in a law passed by their own branch.”

But Republicans will not stop the measure Tuesday. More than 220 Democrats and one Republican — Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan — have signed on to the resolution of disapproval, which Congress can use to end the emergency status under the National Emergencies Act if the threat has dissolved or if there is concern that the president has used his powers irresponsibly. That is already more than enough to clear the House.

Pelosi noted that extending an offer to Republicans to join Democrats in sponsoring the resolution was a courtesy.

“What’s really important is how they will vote when it comes to the floor,” she said. “We’ll see where they come down on that.” Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, the author of the resolution, said that he planned to spend the weekend calling his colleagues and rallying support for the measure. He said he and his staff had been working on the one-page measure for weeks in anticipation of a declaration.

“This is an historic power grab and it will require historic unity by members of Congress,” he said Friday, calling the declaration a “parasitic movement” from the president.

“If the Congress rolls over on this, the president is likely to do it again,” he added.

By law, the Senate will have to take up the measure within 18 days of its passage in the House, where a floor vote is expected within 18 days after a committee vote. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, has in the past been a fierce defender of Senate prerogative, but he backed Trump’s declaration this month to secure passage of a major spending bill that funds the government through the fiscal year.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement Thursday that identical companion legislation would soon be introduced in the Senate. The Senate could also move to amend the resolution that is expected to pass through the House.

House Republicans argue that legal authority given to the president under the act allows for the declaration and that there should be support for prioritizing border security.

But for several Republicans, there is concern about the murky circumstances for declaring a national emergency and the precedent that Trump’s declaration will set for future administrations.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of the senators likely to rebuff the president, said this week that she would support a resolution as long as it did not contain additional items. Other Senate Republicans have voiced discomfort with the president’s decision but have yet to publicly say whether they will support the resolution of disapproval. The slim Republican majority offers hope for Democrats that four Republicans will join them in passing the resolution through the Senate. The challenging 2020 re-election campaigns will squeeze some Senate Republicans between the pro-wall demands of Trump’s base and more moderate voters who oppose the wall or Trump’s emergency declaration.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., outlined situations last week that “a left-wing president would undoubtedly utilize to implement their radical policy agenda while bypassing the authority of Congress” — a “rabbit hole” that he said Trump’s move had made possible.

Others stood by the president.

“I know some Republicans are concerned about the precedent it will set, but here’s what I’m concerned about: a broken border,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaking on Fox News. “I’m worried about what is going to happen now, not what some Democrat may do later.”

Both Democratic leaders said Trump’s declaration violated one of the clearest constitutional mandates.

“If the president’s emergency declaration prevails, it will fundamentally change the balance of powers in a way our country’s founders never envisioned,” Schumer said Thursday. “That should be a serious wake-up call to senators in both parties who believe in the constitutional responsibility of Congress to limit an overreaching executive.”

Members of the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Thursday in part to examine Trump’s use of powers under the National Emergencies Act. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the committee chairman, has requested that Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, and other Justice Department officials appear as witnesses.