President Trump is getting closer to issuing his first veto, which could happen as early as next week after the Senate votes to revoke his declaration of a national emergency at the border.
At least four of the Senate’s 53 Republicans will join Democrats to provide a simple majority needed to pass the measure, which was written after Trump declared a national emergency in order to spend $3.6 billion in military construction funding on physical barriers along the southern border.
Senate Republicans have not announced whether they’ll try to amend the measure, and they have not said which day next week the vote will take place.
If they amend it, it would go back to the House. If they pass the House version, the measure heads directly to President Trump, who has promised to veto it.
The vote against the border emergency in the GOP-led Senate will sting Trump, but the president will ultimately get his way in Congress. Once he vetoes the resolution, a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate would be needed to override Trump, and the numbers just aren’t there.
The override effort would have to start in the House, where it is unlikely that 50 Republicans will cross the aisle to vote against Trump.
That’s why the resolution will at most serve as a public rebuke to Trump’s decision to shift military spending, even though there are Republicans in the House and Senate who support it.
Most Republicans say they agree that the southern border needs barriers, and quickly, but don’t like how the president is finding the money to accomplish that goal.
Nearly 70,000 illegal immigrants were picked up along the southern border in February alone. But nearly all lawmakers, including Republicans, abhor the executive branch redirecting money Congress has already allocated through the appropriations process.
“I’m with the president,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told the Washington Examiner. “Any time you have the opportunity to not do the emergency resolution, I would support that as well. If we could find another way to do it, I would be in favor of that first.”
Republicans are mulling ways to alter the bill or take up companion legislation so that they can approve the money while at the same time send the message that they do not support the president taking away the power of the purse from Congress.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., wants the Senate to write its own resolution rebuking the president for declaring a national emergency while at the same time allowing Trump to use the national emergency to redirect the funds. The measure would be completely separate from the House resolution.
“Each body is free to do its own version,” Toomey said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will ultimately decide what to put on the floor and whether to allow amendments. His spokesman would not provide details about the plan as of Friday.
Meanwhile, the White House is lobbying Republican senators to try to keep them from defecting on the upcoming vote. More than a dozen Republicans have criticized the national emergency, but most have not signaled whether they’ll actually vote with Democrats to revoke it.
Vice President Mike Pence and Justice Department officials have been meeting with Senate Republicans to make the legal and administrative case in favor of the national emergency declaration. Trump has also phoned some Republicans to try to win their support.
Trump’s ally on the Appropriations Committee, Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has been working to convince fellow Republicans that the redirected military construction funding can be quickly ‘backfilled” in the next round of appropriations, which must pass by the end of September.
But Republicans remain wary of the move by Trump, which they fear will deplete critical projects in their states by shuffling money from other areas.
“The administration said these projects are going to get funded,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a top appropriator, told the Washington Examiner. “But unfortunately, there is a long-term plan here, so when you have a backfill, that sets other things back.”
