Vice President Mike Pence met with GOP senators on Capitol Hill Tuesday to try to convince them to back President Trump’s border emergency declaration, but it’s not clear whether he made any headway with members who are wavering on the question.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emerged from a lunch meeting to say he couldn’t even guess at how his colleagues will vote when the time comes next month.
“I personally couldn’t handicap the outcome at this point,” he said.
The House is slated to vote later Tuesday, in what’s expected to be a massive rebuke of Mr. Trump’s claims of emergency powers to redirect billions of dollars intended for military construction, using them instead on border wall building.
Under the 1976 National Emergencies Act, the president has powers to declare emergencies, but Congress can attempt to vote to overrule him.
Mr. Trump has said he will veto any such attempt, and it would take a two-thirds vote to overturn his veto. House GOP leaders say they have more than enough votes to sustain the president’s veto.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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