Senate Votes, Again, To Terminate Trump's Border Emergency Declaration

The Senate on Wednesday voted for a second time to cancel President Donald Trump ’s declaration of an emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, 54-41.

Trump, who declared the emergency in February after failing to convince Congress to allocate funds to construct a wall on the border, is expected to veto the measure after its likely passage by the House. He vetoed a similar measure in March that cleared Congress.

In Wednesday’s vote, 11 Republicans joined 43 Democrats to pass the measure; all 41 votes against it were cast by GOP senators. Support for the resolution falls short of the two-thirds majority that is needed to overturn a veto.

The vote comes after the Trump administration last month announced it would use more than $3 billion in funds Congress appropriated for other projects to pay for the wall the barrier that as a candidate Trump pledged would be financed by Mexico. More than 100 projects are slated to lose their funding, including training facilities, parking lots, schools and daycare centers on various military installations. 

Democrats call the shifting of the funds a violation of the appropriations process and accuse Trump of violating the constitutional principle of separation of powers.

Speaking after the latest vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) chided Republicans who stuck with Trump, saying they “just gave cover to this president to trample our Constitution and steal from the military.”

But the vote provides Democrats with potentially potent political messaging in their efforts to oust several vulnerable GOP senators in the 2020 elections. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Martha McSally of Arizona, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texa all stood by Trump again on the emergency declaration despite representing states that are losing money for military projects to wall construction.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story mistakenly identified Chuck Schumer as the Senate majority leader. He is the minority leader.