Washington, – Several Republican senators have already announced their intention to vote against the declaration of emergency decreed by President Donald Trump to finance the border wall, which would impose the challenge of Congress and force the president to use his veto capacity.
“I must vote as my principles dictate to me … I believe that (the president) is wrong, not in his politics, but in his quest to expand presidential powers beyond his constitutional limits,” Rand Paul said Monday. Republican senator, on his Twitter account.
In an op-ed piece on the conservative Fox network, Paul also recalled how Republicans rejected the use of executive power by former President Barack Obama, and stressed that “the only way to be an honest official is to defend the same principles without having to Tell who is in power. “
With this rejection, the legislative proposal blocking the declaration of national emergency issued by Trump in February to redirect funds for the construction of its controversial wall with Mexico would achieve the 51 votes necessary to prevail.
The vote is expected to take place in the next two weeks.
The 47 senators of the Senate have already assured that they will vote to block the measure and four Republicans have joined them: Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Lias Murkowski and, now, Paul.
Republicans have a slight majority in the upper house from 53 to 47.
The initiative needed a simple majority in the Senate to get ahead, which would force Trump to enforce the presidential veto, something he has already promised to do “100 percent.”
“I think what is clear in the Senate is that there will be enough votes to approve the disapproval resolution, which will then be vetoed by the president and then, with almost all probability, the veto will be backed by Congress,” Mitch said Monday. McConnell, leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, at a rally in Kentucky.
After the presidential veto, the measure would go back to Congress, where it should surpass two thirds of the votes to move forward by revoking the presidential veto, which seems unlikely at the moment.
Previously, it had already been approved in the House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority, by 245 votes in favor and 182 against, with the backing of 13 Republicans included, but also below the two-thirds threshold.
As a result, the presidential veto capacity would be imposed, but the blockade by the chambers of Congress, including that with a Republican majority, would imply an unusual rejection by the legislature to the White House.
Trump decreed on February 15 the state of national emergency for a supposed “invasion” of drugs and criminals on the border with Mexico after the Congress denied him his budgetary pretensions for the construction of the wall.
Under the national emergency, Trump can divert funds from other budget items already authorized by Congress and dedicate them to the promise that brought him to the White House.
The items already approved that the White House intends to divert are from the Pentagon and the Department of the Treasury and reach 6.6 billion dollars.
Added to the 1.375 million dollars that Congress approved for the wall, Trump aims to allocate about 8,000 million dollars for the construction of 376 kilometers (234 miles) of wall in the extensive southern border.
Parallel to the legislative battle, the Democrats have also filed a lawsuit before the Justice to suspend the diversion of funds with the argument that it involves an “illegal diversion” of funds from Congress for something that, in their opinion, does not represent a real emergency .
The matter probably ends up coming to the Supreme Court, where there is a majority of conservative judges, two of them appointed by Trump himself (EFEUSA).
