Democrats prepare legislation to prevent Donald Trump from declaring a national emergency to build border wall

  Donald Trump has been threatening to declare a national emergency so that he can reallocate monies in order to build the border wall and it has been widely speculated that he will use the State of the Union speech to make some kind of formal announcement concerning this proposition.

  It is now being reported here that Senate Democrats are trying to head him off at the pass by trying to pass legislation which would prevent the President from taking monies to build a wall from the Defense Department. Here is more:

A group of Senate Democrats are aiming to block President Donald Trump from building his proposed border wall by declaring a national emergency—an announcement the president could make as soon as Tuesday during his State of the Union address.

Roughly a dozen Democrats are getting behind a bill, being introduced Monday afternoon, that would prohibit Trump from building the wall using funds drawn from either the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the Department of Defense’s military construction accounts.

The bill, which is titled the Restrictions Against Illegitimate Declarations for Emergency Re-Appropriations, or RAIDER, Act, states that “no funds appropriated or otherwise made available prior to the date of the enactment of this Act may be used for the construction of barriers, land acquisition, or any other associated activities on the southern border without specific statutory authorization from Congress.”

  Of course even if this does make it to the President’s desk it will be vetoed, and even though there are some Republicans, such as Marco Rubio, who are opposed to using a national emergency declaration to build the wall it seems unlikely there would be enough Republicans willing to override a veto.

  Here is Marco Rubio’s concern:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), said it could establish a precedent that a future Democratic president would use to advance their policy priorities.

  This is one instance in which I agree with the Senator from Florida. I think this is a horrible idea and sets a dangerous precedent for advancing a political agenda without the approval of the Congress which will only become more commonplace when we have a Democrat for President in two years.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium