[ad_1]
Multimedia playback is not supported on your device
Democratic and Republican politicians strongly criticized President Trump 's plan to use emergency powers to fund the construction of a border wall with Mexico.
Mr Trump is expected to declare the urgency shortly in order to bypbad Congress, which has refused to approve $ 5.7 billion for the wall.
Senior Democrats accused the president of "blatant abuse of power." Several Republicans have also expressed concern.
The construction of a border wall was a vital commitment in Mr. Trump's election campaign.
The declaration of a national emergency would give Mr. Trump access to billions of dollars for his project.
The president agreed Thursday to sign a spending bill that does not include financing the wall. Disagreement on this issue resulted in a 35-day government shutdown earlier this year, the longest in US history.
The expense bill should be signed shortly to avoid another stop. Citing unnamed White House officials, US media reported that the president would sign the emergency act at the same time.
Can Congress stop Trump 's emergency move?
The National Emergencies Act contains a clause that allows Congress to end the emergency status if both Houses vote it – and the President does not have the right of veto.
With a comfortable majority in the House, Democrats could pbad such a resolution in the Senate. Republicans control the Senate, but a number of Republican senators have expressed their discomfort with the fact that the president is citing a national emergency.
Among the dissident Republicans are the 2012 presidential candidate and new senator of Utah Mitt Romney, Florida senator Marco Rubio, and Maine senator, Susan Collins, who said this decision had a " doubtful constitutionality ".
The resolution, however, would still require Trump's signature, which would allow him to veto it. A supermajority in both houses of Congress is necessary to overturn a presidential veto.
What did the White House say?
"The president is once again promising to build the wall, protect the border and secure our great country," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement on Thursday.
She added that Mr. Trump "would take other measures, including a national emergency – to ensure that we put an end to the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border".
The compromise bill was approved by 83 votes to 16 in the Senate on Thursday. The House of Representatives subsequently supported the measure by 300 votes to 128.
The package includes $ 1.3 billion in funding for border security, including physical barriers, but does not pay money for Mr. Trump's wall.
- The Trump Border Wall in Seven Cards
- What part of the wall is already built?
The Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said Thursday his support for the president's national emergency movement, saying that it was acting with "all the tools that it can legally use to strengthen its efforts in to secure the border ". emergency plan on wall
How did the Democrats react?
Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement strongly condemning the movement.
"Declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act, a blatant abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that President Trump has broken his promise to make Mexico pay for his wall," the statement said. .
"He could not convince Mexico, the American people or their elected representatives to pay for his inefficient and expensive wall, so now he is trying a congressional trick in a desperate attempt to make taxpayers pay for it. "
Ms. Pelosi had already suggested that Democrats organize a legal challenge.
To move to Congress, not through
A month ago, in the midst of the crisis caused by the federal government's closure, a consensus emerged: the easiest way for the president was to allow his requests for credit for the walls of the federal government. Congressional boundaries while declaring a "national emergency" sources.
It took a while, but the path of least resistance is the one Donald Trump follows.
He came out of a delicate situation that he himself created, while taking steps that he can invoke from his supporters as evidence that he is holding his campaign promise "Build the wall".
Of course, the inconveniences that appeared in January are still there.
Republicans fear that this will set a precedent for presidential power that Democrats may someday use to circumvent congressional will.
The emergency declaration is likely to get bogged down in court challenges, which means it may not have any concrete benefit in the short term.
And although the president may want to make this victory a victory by other means, he still gave in to the Democratic resistance in Congress.
The stop battle has always been more than the wall: it was to determine who would determine the political agenda of the next two years of the Trump presidency.
And if this resolution is an indication, if the President wants to be heard, he will have to largely find ways to bypbad Congress, not by it.
What is a national emergency?
The law on national emergencies is intended for periods of national crisis. Trump said there was a migration crisis at the southern border of the country – a claim strongly refuted by migration experts.
The largest number of illegal immigrants who settle in the United States each year are those who stay in the country after their visa expires.
By declaring a national emergency, the president would have access to special powers to circumvent the usual political process. He would be able to divert money from military budgets or disaster relief to pay for the wall.
Emergency declarations by former presidents have been widely used to deal with foreign policy crises, notably to prevent terrorist-related entities from accessing funds or to prohibit investments in countries. badociated with violations of human rights.
"It is extremely rare for a president to declare a national emergency to fund national construction projects, particularly a project that Congress has explicitly refused to fund," said Andrew Boyle, a lawyer on the program. Brennan Justice Center National Security Center. the Associated Press news agency.
- The law on national emergencies explained
Trump's decision to enforce the necessary powers to overcome a partisan stalemate about border security has hit politicians on both sides of the aisle as a deviation from the intended use of the law.
"It would be a pretty dramatic extension of how it was used in the past," Republican Senator Ron Johnson said.
Multimedia playback is not supported on your device
Source link
