Senate Republicans have set a vote Thursday on the showdown over President Trump’s border emergency wall-building declaration.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the vote Tuesday after a GOP senators meeting.
He said he, and most other Republicans, support the president’s wall plans, but some of them question whether the emergency declaration and siphoning money from the Pentagon is the right way to go about it.
“It’ll all come to a head on Thursday,” he said. “The clock runs and the vote will occur on Thursday.”
The vote is expected to succeed, with some Republicans joining Democrats to overturn the emergency declaration. The overturn already cleared the House, too.
But Mr. Trump has vowed a veto, and there’s not enough support to overturn that veto.
The president is flexing the National Emergencies Act, a post-Watergate piece of legislation that gives the Executive Branch strong powers to rearrange money if the president declared an emergency is ongoing.
Mr. Trump says such an emergency is taking place on the border, with record numbers of illegal immigrant families and children attempting to sneak into the U.S.
Some senators from both parties are now suggesting the Emergencies Act itself needs changing.
Mr. McConnell said Tuesday he’s open to that, as long as it doesn’t stop Mr. Trump.
“We’re discussing altering that, but that would be prospective,” he said. “It wouldn’t apply to the current situation.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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