Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released the following statement today on the Senate’s 59-41 vote to overturn President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border:
“The vote on the national emergency gave Republicans a clear choice: put the Constitution first, or put President Trump first. The Founding Fathers granted the Congress the power of the purse to decide how to allocate funds. Yet many Republicans will raid funds appropriated by Congress to our armed forces to pay for Trump’s Big Dumb Wall.
“This creates precedent for a future Democratic president to act unilaterally on real crises, like mass shootings and climate change. Next, it will be up to Republicans in Congress to decide how to respond to a presidential veto. We will see where they stand in this contest between Trump and the Constitution.”
