Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander on Thursday asked President Trump to rescind his declaration of a national emergency at the border, just days before the Senate is expected to vote against Trump’s move.
“I want to make a respectful suggestion, and that is this: that President Trump ask his lawyers to take a second look at an existing funding authority that the president has to consider construction of the 234 miles of border wall that do not require a formal declaration of a national emergency,” Alexander, R-Tenn., said on the Senate floor.
Trump’s emergency declaration is aimed at giving Trump access to $3.6 billion in existing funding to build a border wall, after Congress only agreed to give him $1.375 billion for steel slat fencing in one section of the border. When he declared the emergency, Trump also said he would use another $3.1 billion in federal funds that don’t require an emergency declaration.
A few Republican senators have said they would vote in favor of a House-passed resolution to disapprove of Trump’s emergency decision. Alexander, R-Tenn., didn’t say he would also vote for it, but he asked Trump to get the money in a different way in order to avoid the vote altogether.
[Related: Rand Paul, Mike Pence spar over Trump’s national emergency declaration: Report]
Alexander added that Trump is creating a dangerous precedent that would let a Democratic president pursue his own goals without any say from Congress.
“The president can avoid this dangerous precedent completely,” Alexander said.
To get around the dilemma, Alexander said Trump should use the authority he has to use as much as $4 billion in Defense Department funding however he wants. Trump already identified $2.5 billion to use for the wall as part of his unilateral decision to build the wall on his own, and Alexander said Trump should use most of that authority instead of declaring an emergency.
“The president is authorized to do this because of a provision in law that allows him to transfer up to $4 billion among the accounts of the Department of Defense,” he said on the Senate floor.
Alexander said if Trump used $3.7 billion from the Defense Department, he could use that, plus the $1.375 billion Congress approved, plus another $600 million from the Treasury Department Trump has also identified. That would give Trump access to a total of about $5.7 billion.
That’s the same amount Trump initially wanted from Congress, but short of the $8 billion in funding Trump has said he wants to spend in total.
