Senate passes resolution to overturn Trump's national emergency declaration
Washington (CNN)The
Senate delivered a high-profile rebuke to President Donald Trump over
his signature agenda issue Thursday when 12 Republicans joined Democrats
to overturn the President's national emergency border declaration.
The vote was 59-41, an overwhelming vote against the President's executive action.
Lawmakers
don't have enough votes, however, to override a certain veto from the
President, but passage of the resolution in the Senate after it passed
the House last month is nevertheless an embarrassing blow to Trump
delivered by his own party over the President's top campaign pledge of a
wall at the US-Mexico border.
The
12 Senate Republicans who voted in support of the resolution were:
Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Marco Rubio of Florida, Rob Portman of
Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pat Toomey of
Pennsylvania, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Mitt
Romney of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike
Lee of Utah.
An administration
official said plans are underway for Trump to publicly veto the
resolution rejecting his national emergency declaration. The official
said aides are hashing out a plan for Trump to use his veto pen in front
of the cameras as soon as Friday.
The setback for the President also comes on the heels of another high-profile break with his administration after the Senate voted just one day earlier to curtail US military support for a Saudi-led war in Yemen, which has created a humanitarian crisis in that country.
Senate Republicans have struggled for weeks over how to vote on the resolution to overturn the national emergency.
The
vote forced many to choose between loyalty to a President unafraid to
attack members of his party who defy him and an emergency declaration
that conservative critics describe as executive overreach and warn could
set a precedent used by Democratic presidents to declare emergencies
over liberal priorities such as action on climate change.
"Declaring
a national emergency to access different funds sets a dangerous new
precedent," GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio warned in remarks on the Senate
floor ahead of the vote. "It opens the door for future presidents to
implement just about any policy they want."
The
senator went on to say, "a future President could seize industries ... a
future President may well say that climate change is a national
emergency and use emergency authorities to implement the Green New
Deal," referencing a sweeping progressive policy proposal to tackle
global warming.
Portman announced
during his remarks that he would support the resolution, but made a
point to say -- as have many other Republicans -- that he believes
"President Trump is right about the crisis at the border."
Republicans
had to take a tough vote on the border declaration after House
Democrats pushed for a resolution to terminate the national emergency
that the President announced last month in an effort to unlock money for wall construction at the southern border.
The
President declared an emergency when it became clear that Congress
would not meet his demand for more than $5 billion in border wall
funding. The resolution is privileged, which means that Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell could not block it from coming to the floor for a
vote.
Enough Republican senators
had already stated their support for the resolution ahead of Thursday's
vote to guarantee it would pass. But the President continued to publicly
pressure Republicans to vote against the resolution in the hours
leading up to the vote, framing the vote as a choice between supporting
border security or siding with liberal Democrats on immigration.
A number of GOP senators announced
ahead of the vote on Thursday that they would vote in favor of the
resolution, including Mitt Romney, Lamar Alexander and Pat Toomey.
Prior
to the day of the vote, GOP Senators Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Susan
Collins and Thom Tillis had said they planned to vote for the
resolution.
In an apparent
last-minute reversal, however, Tillis announced just ahead of the vote
on Thursday that he would vote against the resolution, despite
previously saying he would vote in favor in a Washington Post op-ed.
"Today,
I come to the floor to say that I do not intend to vote for the
resolution of disapproval," the senator said, adding "The White House
has been very gracious and I should say very patient given my initial
position in working with us."
This story has been updated with additional developments Thursday.