The Senate had enough votes Thursday to block President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration over the southern border, a sharp bipartisan rebuke of the president's flex of executive power.
Trump plans to reject the bill, which the Democratic-held House has already passed. The veto would be the first of his presidency. Neither chamber appears to have enough support to overcome Trump's opposition with a two-thirds majority vote.
Republican senators who worried about executive overreach dealt an embarrassing blow to the president, who publicly lobbied the GOP to support his declaration in recent days. GOP lawmakers who voted to terminate Trump's action voiced concerns not only about presidents circumventing Congress' appropriations power, but also the prospect of Democratic administrations declaring emergencies on other topics in the future.
Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border last month to divert $3.6 billion from military construction funds to build his proposed border wall. The move followed Trump's frustration with lawmakers' decision to allocate only $1.4 billion of the $5.7 billion Trump wanted for border barriers in a measure to fund the government through September.
With Trump's expected veto, Congress will not stop the emergency declaration. His administration will still have to defend its legality in court. More than a dozen states and several other groups have challenged the executive action.
Trump has repeatedly argued he has the authority to declare a national emergency. In recent days, he tried to frame it as a vote on whether to support his immigration policies — not on whether he overreached his authority.
In a tweet Thursday, he wrote that "today's issue is BORDER SECURITY and Crime!!!" He added: "Don't vote with [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi!"
Donald Trump tweet
Republican senators found themselves trying to balance support for Trump's goals — which GOP voters overwhelmingly back — and wariness of executive overreach. Lee proposed a plan this week that would give Congress more power to check future presidential emergency declarations, but not the current one.
The measure could have limited GOP defections on Thursday's vote, but Trump declined to support it on Wednesday.
The Senate's national emergency vote was its second admonishment of the president in two days. It passed a resolution Wednesday to end U.S. support for a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen in a challenge to Trump's relationship with Saudi Arabia.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
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