Senate Democrats to force vote this week on Trump’s border wall emergency declaration
Senate Democrats plan to force a vote this week on whether to nix President Trump’s emergency declaration on border wall funding.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Monday that Republicans “will be forced to vote later this week on the president’s emergency declaration, which he is using to steal money from our military to fund a border wall.”
“My Republican colleagues face a choice about whether or not to have the Senate enforce its role as a check on the executive branch,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.
{mosads}”The simplest, quickest and only way of protecting military funding is for my Republican friends to join us in terminating the emergency declaration later this week,” he added.
Schumer had previously said Democrats would force a vote within the month. The vote is expected to take place as soon as Wednesday, but has not been officially scheduled.
Congress previously voted to nix the emergency declaration to shift military construction money toward the wall in February, with 12 Senate Republicans voting to block Trump from using his emergency powers.
But the House was unable to override Trump’s veto.
The decision to force a second vote comes after the Trump administration began notifying congressional leadership and lawmakers who would have projects affected by the declaration that they were going to move forward with their plan to redirect $3.6 billion in emergency declaration funding.
Under the National Emergencies Act, Democrats can force additional votes on resolutions of disapproval blocking Trump every sixth months —prolonging the political headache for Republicans.
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