Category: Southern Border

House Fails to Prevent Emergency Declaration, Funding from Pentagon 3/26/19

The House failed to override President Trump’s Veto, voting 248-181, with 14 Republicans joining all Democrats [1], yet falling 38 votes short of the required 2/3 majority needed to pass [2].

Due to this, the Department of Defense has stated that they’ve procured $1 Billion for the border fencing.

Even though the Pentagon never informed Congress of their allocation, which is required to consult with them before any reallocation of funding could be performed, the Defense Secretary, Patrick Shanahan, stated that this process can be skipped in the case of an Emergency Deceleration by the President [3].

Sources

Source 1: https://www.c-span.org/video/?458887-1/us-house-fails-override-presidents-veto-border-resolution-248-181

Source 2: https://www.apnews.com/056c0ce531a34b999a6a50179e2265ad

Source 3: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/26/706795716/pentagon-authorizes-1-billion-for-fence-construction-at-mexico-border

Congress Attempts to Override Trump’s Emergency Declaration 3/19/19

Beginning on February 26th, the House passed a measure to overturn Trump’s Emergency Declaration, voting 245-182, just 11 days after the declaration was made [1].

Eventually, the measure was moved to the Senate, where on March 14th, 12 Republicans voted for the measure to be moved forward, with a vote of 59-41, passing the Senate but not within a veto-proof majority [2].

From there, Trump announced his intentions of Vetoing the measure, and did so the following day [3].

Now, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, is expected to challenge his Veto in the House, publicly stating that she’d do so by having an override vote take place on March 26th [4].

In this instance, Nancy Pelosi’s vote on March 26th is unlikely to pass, as a Supermajority of 2/3 is needed to override a Presidential Veto, meaning 67 members of the Senate or 290 members of the House, which neither Congressional House met during the vote.

The Emergency on the Southern Border, however, isn’t an emergency at all [5], and will inevitably be forgotten after Trump leaves office.

There is a long process needed to get the land on the southern border, requiring Eminent Domain utilization by the Federal Government, in which the government can seize private land for their own use. This was done during the W. Bush and Obama Presidencies to allow for the Secure Fence Act, against the wishes of many who owned the land, which put the current Border Fence we have lining the most accessible portions of the United State’s Southern Border that is there today [6].

Sources

Source 1: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/431722-house-votes-to-overturn-trump-emergency-declaration

Source 2: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-renews-veto-threat-as-senate-prepares-to-rebuke-him-on-national-emergency/2019/03/14/2efbea36-4647-11e9-aaf8-4512a6fe3439_story.html

Source 3: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/us/politics/trump-veto-national-emergency.html

Source 4: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/03/16/pelosi-override-trump-vetos-congressional-national-emergency/

Source 5: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/13/donald-trump-national-emergency-border-225781

Source 6: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/12/14/border-land-grab-government-abused-power-seize-property-fence/