Pelosi’s brick wall: ‘This House will not’ take up bill to overhaul national emergency power

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has shot down a Republican effort to amend national emergency powers and avoid having a confrontation with President Trump.

Pelosi refused to take up a proposed bill by Senate Republicans attempting to change the National Emergencies Act so they could more easily come out in opposition to Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.

(File Photo: screenshot)

“Republican Senators are proposing new legislation to allow the President to violate the Constitution just this once in order to give themselves cover,” Pelosi said in a statement on Wednesday as the Senate is poised to vote on a resolution disapproving the president’s use of the 1976 law.

“The House will not take up this legislation to give President Trump a pass,” Pelosi said.

Vice President Mike Pence spoke with GOP senators on Tuesday about the proposed bill in the hopes of killing the Democrat resolution overturning Trump’s emergency declaration and thereby avoiding having Trump face the first veto of his presidency.

But with the Senate scheduled to be on recess next week, there was no indication when the  proposed legislation could even reach the Senate floor.

The bill would have allowed Republicans who are wavering in their support of Trump’s national emergency declaration to avoid appearing to join Democrats in defying him. GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Maine’s Susan Collins, Thom Thillis of North Carolina and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski have all said they will vote with the 47 Democrats on the legislation that passed in the House blocking Trump’s emergency declaration.

According to The Hill:

But there are at least a half-dozen other Republicans who are considered strong possibilities to vote for the disapproval legislation, such as Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who say they have already decided how they’re going to vote but haven’t yet announced it.

Other potential defectors include Portman, Toomey, Alexander and Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.).

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who plans to vote against the disapproval resolution, predicted that it will get between 50 and 60 votes — enough to pass with the simple majority it needs.

 

Trump had already reached out to Senate Republicans to support him.

Rep. Andy Biggs, who introduced the companion bill in the House to amend the National Emergencies Act, blasted Pelosi for her decision.

“I think it’s kind of hypocritical on her part to be bellyaching about the use of national emergency provisions of the statutes that Congress delegates to the president, say it’s not an emergency and also that he is abusing his powers and has no constitutional authority,” the Arizona Republican told The Hill. “And we have a bill that prospectively says, you know we’re going to limit that — it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Americans sick of Democrats – and weak Republicans – who refuse to acknowledge the immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border that has also quickly escalated into a health emergency, poured out their disgust on Twitter.

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Frieda Powers

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