House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed President Trump’s plan to pay for a border wall via military funding as “appalling” on Thursday.
“The president said Mexico would pay for the wall. Well, that’s not happening,” she told reporters. “This is some kind of ego wall for the president, and he will just make anybody pay the price.”
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump announced his plan to use his emergency powers to siphon $3.6 billion away from the Pentagon’s facilities funds to make progress on border wall construction. The declaration was signed earlier this year, and the Trump administration already diverted $2 billion in other Pentagon funds.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer announced plans for his members to force a vote on a resolution that would terminate Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration. However, Mr. Trump used his veto powers to override.
“The president’s national emergency declaration was, and is, an outrageous power grab by a president who refuses to respect the constitutional separation of powers,” he wrote in a statement.
Democrats can push this vote every six months under the National Emergencies Act of 1976.
Six months ago, the Senate did vote to terminate the emergency declaration in a 59-41 vote, with 12 Republicans siding with the Democrats.
Mrs. Pelosi was confident Thursday that the Senate would move to terminate the declaration next week and said the House would act after the resolution passed in the Senate.
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.