Source: NBC News
Republican and Democratic lawmakers expressed concern Sunday over President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to divert money to build his proposed border wall after Congress refused to authorize such funding.
The declaration, which Trump made Friday, has divided Republicans, with some saying the move amounted to constitutional overreach and could open the door to a future Democratic president declaring similar emergencies over issues the GOP disagrees with.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said “many of us are concerned about” the declaration.
That declaration is “certainly the expansion of authority Congress has given past presidents; this president has the same authority,” Johnson said. “I wish he wouldn’t use it in this case. But again, I understand his frustration.”
Johnson said he would take “a very careful look at what he’s doing here in this instance.”
“I’m going to take a look at the case the president makes,” Johnson said. “And I’m also going to take a look at how quickly this money is actually going to be spent versus what he’s going to use.
“If he’s not going to be spending it this fiscal year or very early in the next fiscal year, I would have my doubts” about whether the situation at the border is truly an emergency, Johnson continued. “So again, I’m going to take a look at it and I’ll, you know, I’ll decide when I actually have to vote on it.”
Feb. 17, 201901:49
On Friday, Trump ordered a national emergency to build a border wall that he could not get Congress to fund. The government is fresh off of a 35-day partial government shutdown — the longest in U.
S. history — that began after lawmakers refused to provide Trump with $5.7 billion in funding to build that wall. Trump shut down the government in response, but relented after more than a month, signing a stopgap spending bill.The president on Friday also signed a bipartisan spending agreement that included more than $1.3 billion for 55 new miles of border fencing as well as…
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