This week: Trump set for Senate setback on emergency declaration

The Senate is set to reject President Trump’s emergency declaration to construct the U.S.-Mexico border wall, paving the way for a veto showdown with the White House.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hasn’t officially scheduled a vote, but the chamber is expected to take up the measure before Congress leaves town for a weeklong recess.

A House-passed resolution of disapproval has enough support to pass the Senate, with at least four Republicans expected to join with all 47 members of the Democratic caucus to vote for it, and roughly a dozen more undecided.

{mosads}Some senators have predicted the number of GOP supporters backing the resolution could hit double digits, which would mark an embarrassing political setback for Trump after he urged Republicans to remain “united” in opposition to a resolution of disapproval.

Trump has pledged to use the first veto of his presidency to block the resolution terminating his emergency declaration. The wall was a key campaign promise for Trump and is still a potent issue for the party’s base.

“He’s going to veto this and then his veto will be sustained. They will not be able to override the veto,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the No. 3 Republican senator, said during an interview with Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Democratic leadership has urged Republicans to override Trump’s veto, but neither chamber appears to have the two-thirds support necessary to do so successfully, with the emergency declaration instead expected to play out in a lengthy court battle.

Republicans are still trying to craft alternative language as they hunt for a more palatable option than the House resolution, which passed that chamber with the support of 13 Republicans. Senators left town on Thursday without resolving their floor strategy, with anything from amending the House resolution to offering a separate proposal still on the table.

“Republican senators continue to look for a way that encourages the president to look for alternatives,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, said late last week after a closed-door caucus lunch.

Republicans are exploring ways Trump could get $5.7 billion for the wall without declaring a national emergency, a controversial step that has rankled traditional GOP allies on Capitol Hill.

One idea being explored by Republicans is trying to expand the amount of money Trump is reshuffling from the Pentagon’s counter-drug fund, a move that does not require a national emergency. Republicans are also mulling legislation that would make it easier for Congress to end a national emergency, including requiring that Congress vote to continue it after a certain period of time.

“I’m working with my colleagues to fashion legislation next week that will address that, that will make sure we get the funding we need to build the wall we need but not in a way that violates constitutional responsibility,” Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) told a Pennsylvania radio station last week.

Though Republicans have been wary of breaking with Trump on border security, they are also concerned that he’s setting a legal precedent that could be used by a future Democratic president to force through policies on issues like climate change or gun control.

Trump’s budget

Trump will start rolling out his budget for the 2020 fiscal year on Monday, setting up another clash with Congress over the wall.

Trump is expected to request $8.6 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall, which will be used to build or replace roughly 700 miles of barriers.

Democrats immediately rejected the amount, warning that Trump would force another government shutdown if he demanded the border wall funding.

{mossecondads}”President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement.

“Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,” they added. “We hope he learned his lesson.”

In addition to a battle over the border wall, Trump is expected to fight with lawmakers over his plans to dramatically increase the amount of overseas contingency operation money, a defense fund that is not subjected to budget caps, as well as cuts to nondefense spending.

Trump’s proposal won’t become law, with White House budgets largely viewed as political documents that lay out an administration’s priorities. But he will need to work out a deal on top-line spending levels for defense and nondefense before Oct. 1 or sequestration will go into effect.

Administration officials — including acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — will head to Capitol Hill this week to defend Trump’s budget request.

Mueller

The House is slated to take up a Democratic-backed nonbinding resolution calling on Department of Justice (DOJ) officials to publicly release special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The House Rules Committee is expected to meet on the resolution Monday evening. The measure will then head to the floor in subsequent days.

The resolution comes after Attorney General William Barr, who has opted not to recuse himself from the investigation, would not commit to releasing the final report to the public during his confirmation hearing. Though Barr has pledged to let Mueller finish his investigation, he has sparked backlash because of a memo he drafted criticizing the Russia probe. 

The measure’s text calls for the report to be “made available to the public and to Congress,” arguing there is “overwhelming public interest” in its content and that it should be released in full “except to the extent the public disclosure of any portion thereof is expressly prohibited by law.”

House committee chairmen could potentially subpoena the report if the DOJ opts not to release it to the public.  

“As the Department of Justice made clear over the last two years, DOJ policy permits disclosure of investigative materials when it serves the public interest, even as they pertain to ‘uncharged third parties,’ ”  House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)  said in a statement.

“The public is clearly served by transparency with respect to any investigation that could implicate or exonerate the President and his campaign. We urge our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in supporting this common sense resolution.”

DREAM Act

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) is expected on Tuesday to reintroduce the DREAM Act, which would provide permanent legal protections and a path to citizenship for immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.

House Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to force for a vote on the measure, which would provide protections for millions of immigrants residing in the U.S., in 2017 via a discharge petition under the then-Republican-controlled chamber.

Passing the legislation is a top priority for Democrats in the House. The bill will likely face an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass.

VAWA

The House is expected to act swiftly to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in the coming days. Congress allowed VAWA, which provides funding and grants for a variety of programs that tackle domestic abuse, to lapse in February after a provision in a must-pass spending bill that would have extended it was left on the chopping block.

The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), was introduced last Thursday.

“With this bill, we are empowering law enforcement and helping stop abusers and stalkers from obtaining firearms,” Pelosi said at a press conference following its introduction.

“We’re supporting survivors with protections against discrimination in the workplace and unjust evictions. And we are strengthening protections, again, for Native American women because every woman everywhere has the right to live free from abuse. We urge all Members to join us in strong, bipartisan support for this bill.”

Nominations

McConnell has teed up another slate of Trump nominees, including a successor for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

McConnell has filed cloture on Paul Matey’s nomination to be a judge for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, Neomi Rao’s nomination to be an appeals judge for the D.C. Circuit and William Beach’s Labor Department nomination.

Rao, who serves as Trump’s regulatory czar, was grilled by Democrats and Republicans during her hearing about controversial college writings including a 1994 opinion piece for The Yale Herald in which she appeared to argue that women are partially to blame for sexual assault.

Rao wrote at the time that if a woman “drinks to the point where she can no longer choose, well, getting to that point was a part of her choice.”