CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a joint resolution Tuesday to terminate President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration on border security, setting up a battle in the Senate.
The House voted 245-182 to block the president’s declaration, which aims to divert federal funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
A majority of Democrats — 232 of the 235 lawmakers, with three Democrats not voting — supported the resolution, compared to 13 Republicans who voted “yea.” The 245 votes are not enough to meet the two-thirds majority needed to override an expected Trump veto.
Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Carol Miller opposed the resolution.
The president signed a funding bill and emergency declaration on Feb. 15, in which Congress approved around $1.4 billion for 55 miles of physical barriers in high priority areas in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. The declaration sets to secure $8 billion for 234 miles of additional barrier; Trump asked for $3.6 billion from military construction funding and $2.5 billion from the Defense Department’s anti-drug efforts for the structure.
Trump requested $5.7 billion for a border wall in December, a demand Republicans and Democrats could not agree on, leading to a 35-day partial government shutdown.
All 47 Senate Democrats are expected to vote in favor of the resolution, meaning four Republicans need to back the measure for it to reach the president’s desk. Maine’s Suan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis have voiced support for blocking the emergency declaration.
“Republicans need to realize that this will lead inevitably to regret when a Democrat once again controls the White House, cites the precedent set by Trump, and declares his or her own national emergency to advance a policy that couldn’t gain congressional approval,” Tillis wrote in The Washington Post.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on Feb. 14 called a national emergency declaration unnecessary in light of the congressional deal, while Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., stated support for Trump’s action.