U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, said
Friday while he didn’t agree with President Trump declaring a national
emergency to build a wall with Mexico, he won’t support a Democratic
resolution aimed at blocking the president.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote on Tuesday to block the president’s declaration.
If
approved as expected, it will then go to the Senate where it needs 60
votes to pass. It’s unclear if enough Republicans would join Senate
Democrats in voting to block Trump from using money already allocated
for military construction projects to build the wall.
Reed told reporters during his weekly
press call Friday he had opposed national emergency declarations by
former President Barack Obama as well. He said he opposes Congress
delegating national emergency authority to the president.
Obama
declared 12 national emergencies while in office, according to the
Brennan Center for Justice. All related to interests or sanctions in
foreign countries, except one declaring the 2009 swine flu pandemic a
national emergency after more than 1,000 people in the U.S. had died
from the disease.
As Trump was
about to declare the national emergency last week, Pelosi said she could
think of at least one area a future president might declare a national
emergency: gun violence in schools.
There are more than two dozen national emergencies which are still in effect, some after decades.
Normally
a Trump backer, Reed has broken with the president over his national
security declaration over the situation along the Southern border. He
said he disagreed with the declaration.
While
Reed said he disagreed with Trump’s path of a national emergency to
build the wall and enhance border security, the Democratic resolution
sponsored by Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, “is not the appropriate
resolution,” he said. “We should be standing together as an
institution.”
As Trump moved
toward a decision on whether to declare a national emergency, Reed was
one of the few Republicans to urge the president not to do so. Read more here...
