[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 26, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1452-S1456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Declaration of National Emergency
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, President Trump declared a national
emergency 2 weeks ago. He did this in order to build a pet project of
his. In the process, he said it was his intent to siphon billions of
dollars that Congress had appropriated to help our men and women in
uniform. Now, I am not sure what lawyers he consulted, but those
lawyers seem to have overlooked our Nation's founding document--the
U.S. Constitution.
I know the President likes to communicate in 280 characters or less,
so I will point him to a 77-character phrase he may want to review:
``No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of
Appropriations made by Law.''
That is a short sentence, but our Founders knew what it meant. They
enshrined it in article I, section 9 of the Constitution, and they
established that Congress--and Congress alone--possesses the power of
the purse. That Congress has exclusive power over our government's
spending priorities is one of the most critical checks and balances in
our constitutional system. The President can propose funding for
whatever project he wants. He has the absolute right to propose
funding, but it is the job of Congress to decide where to invest the
American people's hard-earned tax dollars.
Let's review the facts. For over 2 years, the President has
repeatedly tried and has repeatedly failed to convince Congress that
building his southern border wall is a good idea. He has failed to get
a deal with Mexico despite giving his word and promising his supporters
more than 200 times that Mexico would pay for it. He promised that
Mexico would pay for it while knowing, of course, that Mexico would not
pay a cent for it. Then he failed to get a deal with his own party even
during the 2 years when the Republicans controlled the Presidency, the
U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives. He also failed to
get a deal after he forced the country into a 35-day government
shutdown over the issue--a shutdown, incidentally, that cost our
country at least $11 billion, to say nothing of the number of people
whose lives were so disrupted that many either lost their apartments,
were unable to pay their mortgages, were unable to pay their bills, or
were unable to pay for the medical care they needed.
Yet, in the face of all of these failings, he has decided to go it
alone. He has decided to stretch his powers--beyond all recognition--
under the National Emergencies Act. There is no rational basis to
justify the use of this authority. So we should look at what a
bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats wrote--a group of 58
former senior national security officials who had to help secure our
country under both Republican and Democratic Presidents.
They wrote: ``There is no factual basis for the declaration of a
national emergency'' on the southwest border.
I ask unanimous consent that the Joint Declaration of Former United
States Government Officials be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Joint Declaration of Former United States Government Officials
We, the undersigned, declare as follows:
[[Page S1453]]
1. We are former officials in the U.S. government who have
worked on national security and homeland security issues from
the White House as well as agencies across the Executive
Branch. We have served in senior leadership roles in
administrations of both major political parties, and
collectively we have devoted a great many decades to
protecting the security interests of the United States. We
have held the highest security clearances, and we have
participated in the highest levels of policy deliberations on
a broad range of issues. These include: immigration, border
security, counterterrorism, military operations, and our
nation's relationship with other countries, including those
south of our border.
a. Madeleine K. Albright served as Secretary of State from
1997 to 2001. A refugee and naturalized American citizen, she
served as U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
from 1993 to 1997. She has also been a member of the Central
Intelligence Agency External Advisory Board since 2009 and of
the Defense Policy Board since 2011, in which capacities she
has received assessments of threats facing the United States.
b. Jeremy B. Bash served as Chief of Staff of the U.S.
Department of Defense from 2011 to 2013, and as Chief of
Staff of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2009 to 2011.
c. John B. Bellinger III served as the Legal Adviser to the
U.S. Department of State from 2005 to 2009. He previously
served as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal
Adviser to the National Security Council from 2001 to 2005.
d. Daniel Benjamin served as Ambassador-at-Large for
Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State from 2009 to
2012.
e. Antony Blinken served as Deputy Secretary of State from
2015 to 2017. He previously served as Deputy National
Security Advisor to the President from 2013 to 2015.
f. John 0. Brennan served as Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2017. He previously served
as Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and
Counterterrorism and Assistant to the President from 2009 to
2013.
g. R. Nicholas Burns served as Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008. He previously served as
U.S. Ambassador to NATO and as U.S. Ambassador to Greece.
h. William J. Burns served as Deputy Secretary of State
from 2011 to 2014. He previously served as Under Secretary of
State for Political Affairs from 2008 to 2011, as U.S.
Ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, as Assistant
Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2001 to
2005, and as U.S. Ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001.
i. Johnnie Carson served as Assistant Secretary of State
for African Affairs from 2009 to 2013. He previously served
as the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya from 1999 to 2003, to
Zimbabwe from 1995 to 1997, and to Uganda from 1991 to 1994.
j. James Clapper served as U.S. Director of National
Intelligence from 2010 to 2017.
k. David S. Cohen served as Under Secretary of the Treasury
for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence from 2011 to 2015
and as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
from 2015 to 2017.
l. Eliot A. Cohen served as Counselor of the U.S.
Department of State from 2007 to 2009.
m. Ryan Crocker served as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan
from 2011 to 2012, as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to
2009, as U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan from 2004 to 2007, as
U.S. Ambassador to Syria from 1998 to 2001, as U.S.
Ambassador to Kuwait from 1994 to 1997, and U.S. Ambassador
to Lebanon from 1990 to 1993.
n. Thomas Donilon served as National Security Advisor to
the President from 2010 to 2013.
o. Jen Easterly served as Special Assistant to the
President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism from 2013
to 2016.
p. Nancy Ely-Raphel served as Senior Adviser to the
Secretary of State and Director of the Office to Monitor and
Combat Trafficking in Persons from 2001 to 2003. She
previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia from
1998 to 2001.
q. Daniel P. Erikson served as Special Advisor for Western
Hemisphere Affairs to the Vice President from 2015 to 2017,
and as Senior Advisor for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the
U.S. Department of State from 2010 to 2015.
r. John D. Feeley served as U.S. Ambassador to Panama from
2015 to 2018. He served as Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S.
Department of State from 2012 to 2015.
s. Daniel F. Feldman served as Special Representative for
Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. Department of State from
2014 to 2015.
t. Jonathan Finer served as Chief of Staff to the Secretary
of State from 2015 to 2017, and Director of the Policy
Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State from 2016 to
2017.
u. Jendayi Frazer served as Assistant Secretary of State
for African Affairs from 2005 to 2009. She served as U.S.
Ambassador to South Africa from 2004 to 2005.
v. Suzy George served as Executive Secretary and Chief of
Staff of the National Security Council from 2014 to 2017.
w. Phil Gordon served as Special Assistant to the President
and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa
and the Gulf from 2013 to 2015, and Assistant Secretary of
State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2009 to 2013.
x. Chuck Hagel served as Secretary of Defense from 2013 to
2015, and previously served as Co-Chair of the President's
Intelligence Advisory Board. From 1997 to 2009, he served as
U.S. Senator for Nebraska, and as a senior member of the
Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees.
y. Avril D. Haines served as Deputy National Security
Advisor to the President from 2015 to 2017. From 2013 to
2015, she served as Deputy Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency.
z. Luke Hartig served as Senior Director for
Counterterrorism at the National Security Council from 2014
to 2016.
aa. Heather A. Higginbottom served as Deputy Secretary of
State for Management and Resources from 2013 to 2017.
bb. Roberta Jacobson served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
from 2016 to 2018. She previously served as Assistant
Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2011
to 2016.
cc. Gil Kerlikowske served as Commissioner of Customs and
Border Protection from 2014 to 2017. He previously served as
Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy from
2009 to 2014.
dd. John F. Kerry served as Secretary of State from 2013 to
2017.
ee. Prem Kumar served as Senior Director for the Middle
East and North Africa at the National Security Council from
2013 to 2015.
ff. John E. McLaughlin served as Deputy Director of the
Central Intelligence Agency from 2000 to 2004 and as Acting
Director in 2004. His duties included briefing President-
elect Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush.
gg. Lisa O. Monaco served as Assistant to the President for
Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and Deputy National
Security Advisor from 2013 to 2017. Previously, she served as
Assistant Attorney General for National Security from 2011 to
2013.
hh. Janet Napolitano served as Secretary of Homeland
Security from 2009 to 2013. She served as the Governor of
Arizona from 2003 to 2009.
ii. James D. Nealon served as Assistant Secretary for
International Engagement at the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security from 2017 to 2018. He served as U.S. Ambassador to
Honduras from 2014 to 2017.
jj. James C. O'Brien served as Special Presidential Envoy
for Hostage Affairs from 2015 to 2017. He served in the U.S.
Department of State from 1989 to 2001, including as Principal
Deputy Director of Policy Planning and as Special
Presidential Envoy for the Balkans.
kk. Matthew G. Olsen served as Director of the National
Counterterrorism Center from 2011 to 2014.
ll. Leon E. Panetta served as Secretary of Defense from
2011 to 2013. From 2009 to 2011, he served as Director of the
Central Intelligence Agency.
mm. Anne W. Patterson served as Assistant Secretary of
State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2013 to 2017. Previously,
she served as the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt from 2011 to 2013,
to Pakistan from 2007 to 2010, to Colombia from 2000 to 2003,
and to El Salvador from 1997 to 2000.
nn. Thomas R. Pickering served as Under Secretary of State
for Political Affairs from 1997 to 2000. He served as U.S.
Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1989 to
1992.
oo. Amy Pope served as Deputy Homeland Security Advisor and
Deputy Assistant to the President from 2015 to 2017.
pp. Samantha J. Power served as U.S. Permanent
Representative to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. From
2009 to 2013, she served as Senior Director for Multilateral
and Human Rights at the National Security Council.
qq. Jeffrey Prescott served as Deputy National Security
Advisor to the Vice President from 2013 to 2015, and as
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for
Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Gulf States from 2015 to 2017.
rr. Nicholas Rasmussen served as Director of the National
Counterterrorism Center from 2014 to 2017.
ss. Alan Charles Raul served as Vice Chairman of the
Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2006 to
2008. He previously served as General Counsel of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture from 1989 to 1993, General Counsel
of the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive
Office of the President from 1988 to 1989, and Associate
Counsel to the President from 1986 to 1989.
tt. Dan Restrepo served as Special Assistant to the
President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs
at the National Security Council from 2009 to 2012.
uu. Susan E. Rice served as U.S. Permanent Representative
to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013 and as National
Security Advisor to the President from 2013 to 2017.
vv. Anne C. Richard served as Assistant Secretary of State
for Population, Refugees, and Migration from 2012 to 2017.
ww. Eric P. Schwartz served as Assistant Secretary of State
for Population, Refugees, and Migration from 2009 to 2011.
From 1993 to 2001, he was responsible for refugee and
humanitarian issues at the National Security Council,
ultimately serving as Special Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs and Senior Director for
Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs.
xx. Andrew J. Shapiro served as Assistant Secretary of
State for Political-Military Affairs from 2009 to 2013.
yy. Wendy R. Sherman served as Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs from 2011 to 2015.
zz. Vikram Singh served as Deputy Special Representative
for Afghanistan and Pakistan
[[Page S1454]]
from 2010 to 2011 and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Southeast Asia from 2012 to 2014.
aaa. Dana Shell Smith served as U.S. Ambassador to Qatar
from 2014 to 2017. Previously, she served as Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs.
bbb. Jeffrey H. Smith served as General Counsel of the
Central Intelligence Agency from 1995 to 1996. He previously
served as General Counsel of the Senate Armed Services
Committee.
ccc. Jake Sullivan served as National Security Advisor to
the Vice President from 2013 to 2014. He previously served as
Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State
from 2011 to 2013.
ddd. Strobe Talbott served as Deputy Secretary of State
from 1994 to 2001.
eee. Linda Thomas-Greenfield served as Assistant Secretary
for the Bureau of African Affairs from 2013 to 2017. She
previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Liberia and Deputy
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees,
and Migration from 2004 to 2006.
fff. Arturo A. Valenzuela served as Assistant Secretary of
State for Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2009 to 2011. He
previously served as Special Assistant to the President and
Senior Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National
Security Council from 1999 to 2000, and as Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for Mexican Affairs from 1994 to 1996.
2. On February 15, 2019, the President declared a
``national emergency'' for the purpose of diverting
appropriated funds from previously designated uses to build a
wall along the southern border. We are aware of no emergency
that remotely justifies such a step. The President's actions
are at odds with the overwhelming evidence in the public
record, including the administration's own data and
estimates. We have lived and worked through national
emergencies, and we support the President's power to mobilize
the Executive Branch to respond quickly in genuine national
emergencies. But under no plausible assessment of the
evidence is there a national emergency today that entitles
the President to tap into funds appropriated for other
purposes to build a wall at the southern border. To our
knowledge, the President's assertion of a national emergency
here is unprecedented, in that he seeks to address a
situation:
(1) that has been enduring, rather than one that has arisen
suddenly;
(2) that in fact has improved over time rather than
deteriorated;
(3) by reprogramming billions of dollars in funds in the
face of clear congressional intent to the contrary; and
(4) with assertions that are rebutted not just by the
public record, but by his agencies' own official data,
documents, and statements.
3. Illegal border crossings are near forty-year lows. At
the outset, there is no evidence of a sudden or emergency
increase in the number of people seeking to cross the
southern border. According to the administration's own data,
the numbers of apprehensions and undetected illegal border
crossings at the southern border are near forty-year lows.
Although there was a modest increase in apprehensions in
2018, that figure is in keeping with the number of
apprehensions only two years earlier, and the overall trend
indicates a dramatic decline over the last fifteen years in
particular. The administration also estimates that
``undetected unlawful entries'' at the southern border ``fell
from approximately 851,000 to nearly 62,000'' between fiscal
years 2006 to 2016, the most recent years for which data are
available. The United States currently hosts what is
estimated to be the smallest number of undocumented
immigrants since 2004. And in fact, in recent years, the
majority of currently undocumented immigrants entered the
United States legally, but overstayed their visas, a problem
that will not be addressed by the declaration of an emergency
along the southern border.
4. There is no documented terrorist or national security
emergency at the southern border. There is no reason to
believe that there is a terrorist or national security
emergency at the southern border that could justify the
President's proclamation.
a. This administration's own most recent Country Report on
Terrorism, released only five months ago, found that ``there
was no credible evidence indicating that international
terrorist groups have established bases in Mexico, worked
with Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into
the United States.'' Since 1975, there has been only one
reported incident in which immigrants who had crossed the
southern border illegally attempted to commit a terrorist
act. That incident occurred more than twelve years ago, and
involved three brothers from Macedonia who had been brought
into the United States as children more than twenty years
earlier.
b. Although the White House has claimed, as an argument
favoring a wall at the southern border, that almost 4,000
known or suspected terrorists were intercepted at the
southern border in a single year, this assertion has since
been widely and consistently repudiated, including by this
administration's own Department of Homeland Security. The
overwhelming majority of individuals on terrorism watchlists
who were intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol were
attempting to travel to the United States by air; of the
individuals on the terrorist watchlist who were encountered
while entering the United States during fiscal year 2017,
only 13 percent traveled by land. And for those who have
attempted to enter by land, only a small fraction do so at
the southern border. Between October 2017 and March 2018,
forty-one foreign immigrants on the terrorist watchlist were
intercepted at the northern border. Only six such immigrants
were intercepted at the southern border.''
5. There is no emergency related to violent crime at the
southern border. Nor can the administration justify its
actions on the grounds that the incidence of violent crime on
the southern border constitutes a national emergency. Factual
evidence consistently shows that unauthorized immigrants have
no special proclivity to engage in criminal or violent
behavior. According to a Cato Institute analysis of
criminological data, undocumented immigrants are 44 percent
less likely to be incarcerated nationwide than are native-
born citizens. And in Texas, undocumented immigrants were
found to have a first-time conviction rate 32 percent below
that of native-born Americans; the conviction rates of
unauthorized immigrants for violent crimes such as homicide
and sex offenses were also below those of native-born
Americans. Meanwhile, overall rates of violent crime in the
United States have declined significantly over the past 25
years, falling 49 percent from 1993 to 2017. And violent
crime rates in the country's 30 largest cities have decreased
on average by 2.7 percent in 2018 alone, further undermining
any suggestion that recent crime trends currently warrant the
declaration of a national emergency.
6. There is no human or drug trafficking emergency that can
be addressed by a wall at the southern border. The
administration has claimed that the presence of human and
drug trafficking at the border justifies its emergency
declaration. But there is no evidence of any such sudden
crisis at the southern border that necessitates a
reprogramming of appropriations to build a border wall.
a. The overwhelming majority of opioids that enter the
United States across a land border are carried through legal
ports of entry in personal or commercial vehicles, not
smuggled through unauthorized border crossings. A border wall
would not stop these drugs from entering the United States.
Nor would a wall stop drugs from entering via other routes,
including smuggling tunnels, which circumvent such physical
barriers as fences and walls, and international mail (which
is how high-purity fentanyl, for example, is usually shipped
from China directly to the United States).
b. Likewise, illegal crossings at the southern border are
not the principal source of human trafficking victims. About
two-thirds of human trafficking victims served by nonprofit
organizations that receive funding from the relevant
Department of Justice office are U.S. citizens, and even
among non-citizens, most trafficking victims usually arrive
in the country on valid visas. None of these instances of
trafficking could be addressed by a border wall. And the
three states with the highest per capita trafficking
reporting rates are not even located along the southern
border.
7. This proclamation will only exacerbate the humanitarian
concerns that do exist at the southern border. There are real
humanitarian concerns at the border, but they largely result
from the current administration's own deliberate policies
towards migrants. For example, the administration has used a
``metering'' policy to turn away families fleeing extreme
violence and persecution in their home countries, forcing
them to wait indefinitely at the border to present their
asylum cases, and has adopted a number of other punitive
steps to restrict those seeking asylum at the southern
border. These actions have forced asylum-seekers to live on
the streets or in makeshift shelters and tent cities with
abysmal living conditions, and limited access to basic
sanitation has caused outbreaks of disease and death. This
state of affairs is a consequence of choices this
administration has made, and erecting a wall will do nothing
to ease the suffering of these people.
8. Redirecting funds for the claimed ``national emergency''
will undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy
interests. In the face of a nonexistent threat, redirecting
funds for the construction of a wall along the southern
border will undermine national security by needlessly pulling
resources from Department of Defense programs that are
responsible for keeping our troops and our country safe and
running effectively.
a. Repurposing funds from the defense construction budget
will drain money from critical defense infrastructure
projects, possibly including improvement of military
hospitals, construction of roads, and renovation of on-base
housing. And the proclamation will likely continue to divert
those armed forces already deployed at the southern border
from their usual training activities or missions, affecting
troop readiness.
b. In addition, the administration's unilateral,
provocative actions are heightening tensions with our
neighbors to the south, at a moment when we need their help
to address a range of Western Hemisphere concerns. These
actions are placing friendly governments to the south under
impossible pressures and driving partners away. They have
especially strained our diplomatic relationship with Mexico,
a relationship that is vital to regional efforts ranging from
critical intelligence and law enforcement partnerships to
cooperative efforts to address the growing tensions with
Venezuela. Additionally, the proclamation could well lead to
the
[[Page S1455]]
degradation of the natural environment in a manner that could
only contribute to long-term socioeconomic and security
challenges.
c. Finally, by declaring a national emergency for domestic
political reasons with no compelling reason or justification
from his senior intelligence and law enforcement officials,
the President has further eroded his credibility with foreign
leaders, both friend and foe. Should a genuine foreign crisis
erupt, this lack of credibility will materially weaken this
administration's ability to marshal allies to support the
United States, and will embolden adversaries to oppose us.
9. The situation at the border does not require the use of
the armed forces, and a wall is unnecessary to support the
use of the armed forces. We understand that the
administration is also claiming that the situation at the
southern border ``requires use of the armed forces,'' and
that a wall is ``necessary to support such use'' of the armed
forces. These claims are implausible.
a. Historically, our country has deployed National Guard
troops at the border solely to assist the Border Patrol when
there was an extremely high number of apprehensions, together
with a particularly low number of Border Patrol agents. But
currently, even with retention and recruitment challenges,
the Border Patrol is at historically high staffing and
funding levels, and apprehensions--measured in both absolute
and per-agent terms--are near historic lows.
b. Furthermore, the composition of southern border
crossings has shifted such that families and unaccompanied
minors now account for the majority of immigrants seeking
entry at the southern border; these individuals do not
present a threat that would need to be countered with
military force.
c. Just last month, when asked what the military is doing
at the border that couldn't be done by the Department of
Homeland Security if it had the funding for it, a top-level
defense official responded, ``[n] one of the capabilities
that we are providing [at the southern border] are combat
capabilities. It's not a war zone along the border.''
Finally, it is implausible that hundreds of miles of wall
across the southern border are somehow necessary to support
the use of armed forces. We are aware of no military- or
security-related rationale that could remotely justify such
an endeavor.
10. There is no basis for circumventing the appropriations
process with a declaration of a national emergency at the
southern border. We do not deny that our nation faces real
immigration and national security challenges. But as the
foregoing demonstrates, these challenges demand a thoughtful,
evidence-based strategy, not a manufactured crisis that rests
on falsehoods and fearmongering. In a briefing before the
Senate Intelligence Committee on January 29, 2019, less than
one month before the Presidential Proclamation, the Directors
of the CIA, DNI, FBI, and NSA testified about numerous
serious current threats to U.S. national security, but none
of the officials identified a security crisis at the U.S.-
Mexico border. In a briefing before the House Armed Services
Committee the next day, Pentagon officials acknowledged that
the 2018 National Defense Strategy does not identify the
southern border as a security threat. Leading legislators
with access to classified information the President's own
statements have strongly suggested, if not confirmed, that
there is no evidence supporting the administration's claims
of an emergency. And it is reported that the President made
the decision to circumvent the appropriations process and
reprogram money without the Acting Secretary of Defense
having even started to consider where the funds might come
from, suggesting an absence of consultation and internal
deliberations that in our experience are necessary and
expected before taking a decision of this magnitude.
11. For all of the foregoing reasons, in our professional
opinion, there is no factual basis for the declaration of a
national emergency for the purpose of circumventing the
appropriations process and reprogramming billions of dollars
in funding to construct a wall at the southern border, as
directed by the Presidential Proclamation of February 15,
2019.
Respectfully submitted,
Signed,
Madeleine K. Albright, Jeremy B. Bash, John B. Bellinger
III, Daniel Benjamin, Antony Blinken, John O. Brennan, R.
Nicholas Burns, William J. Burns, Johnnie Carson, James
Clapper.
David S. Cohen, Eliot A. Cohen, Ryan Crocker, Thomas
Donilon, Jen Easterly, Nancy Ely-Raphel, Daniel P. Erikson,
John D. Feeley, Daniel F. Feldman, Jonathan Finer.
Jendayi Frazer, Suzy George, Phil Gordon, Chuck Hagel,
Avril D. Haines, Luke Hartig, Heather A. Higginbottom,
Roberta Jacobson, Gil Kerlikowske, John F. Kerry.
Prem Kumar, John E. McLaughlin, Lisa O. Monaco, Janet
Napolitano, James D. Nealon, James C. O'Brien, Matthew G.
Olsen, Leon E. Panetta, Anne W. Patterson, Thomas R.
Pickering.
Amy Pope, Samantha J. Power, Jeffrey Prescott, Nicholas
Rasmussen, Alan Charles Raul, Dan Restrepo, Susan E. Rice,
Anne C. Richard, Eric P. Schwartz, Andrew J. Shapiro.
Wendy R. Sherman, Vikram Singh, Dana Shell Smith, Jeffrey
H. Smith, Jake Sullivan, Strobe Talbott, Linda Thomas-
Greenfield, Arturo A. Valenzuela.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the reality, of course, is that
apprehensions at the southwest border have dropped 75 percent since
2000. The reality is that many of the southern border communities have
violent crime rates that are lower than our national average. The
reality is that the vast majority of the drugs that are apprehended at
the border are seized at the ports of entry, and a wall would do
nothing to stop this. The President is either out of touch with
reality, willfully ignoring it, or not even reading the material he
gets from his administration.
Presidents do have emergency powers, but they should be invoked only
in true times of crises. It is an abuse of power to invoke these
authorities simply as a political step to energize a President's base.
It is an abuse of power to invoke these authorities to fulfill a
cynical campaign promise he never should have made. The President knew
he would never keep his word or the promise he had made that Mexico
would pay for this border wall.
When Congress enacted the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to convey
these powers to the President, it assumed whoever sat in the Oval
Office would have enough respect for the office and the power being
conveyed not to abuse it. President Trump has failed that test. Since
1976, Presidents of the United States--Republicans and Democrats
alike--have upheld and passed the test. President Trump has failed the
test. Look what he wants to do. The President wants to raid money that
is meant for military housing and military base improvements to pay for
his wall. This is at a time when studies are coming out that show how
our men and women in the military are being housed in inferior or
dangerous conditions. Sometimes the buildings have mold and decay, and
it affects their health. The buildings are rat invested and roach
infested, but the President wants to take the money away from them to
build a wall that we do not need. The President has repeatedly decried
the amount of drugs coming across our border. But now he wants to raid
money that Congress has appropriated for proven drug programs and
counter-drug programs to pay for his wall.
Let me repeat that. In order to build a wall that would do very
little to stop drugs from coming across our border, President Trump
wants to take money away from law enforcement programs that actually
prevent drugs from coming across our border or from programs that
enhance military readiness. I wish I were making this up. It sounds
like something you hear on a comedy program, but it is not comedy, it
is reality, and I have to ask, what is going on?
In the days and weeks ahead, the President's emergency declaration--
which amounts to an end run around both the Constitution and Congress--
is going to be challenged, and it should be. Over the past 2 years, we
have seen the erosion of our institutional checks and balances in the
face of creeping authoritarianism. The time has come for Congress and
members of the President's own party to take a stand. Are we a
democracy, or are we an authoritarian government? It is a pretty basic
question.
I have been here with every President since President Gerald Ford.
They upheld the Constitution, Republicans and Democrats, and they
believed in the separation of power. All of them did. We simply cannot
afford to now remain silent in the face of such an unprecedented
violation of the separation of powers.
It is interesting. As I sit here, I remember some of my Republican
friends--and they are my friends--when President Obama was President.
They shouted from every rooftop about the lurches of an imperial
Presidency. In every Executive order, they saw a threat to Congress's
power. In every speech, they surmised the machinations of a lawless
strong man--a man Donald Trump claimed wasn't born in the United
States. Now, when they are faced with a President who is literally
using his Executive powers to fund what Congress specifically would
not, my Republican friends should echo the same concerns.
I am glad that some in the Republican Party have begun expressing
their reservations about President Trump's national emergency
declaration. Certainly a number of Republicans who serve in national
security positions who signed on to the material
[[Page S1456]]
I have put in the Record did. But fleeting comments to reporters in the
hallway are meaningless unless they are willing to follow up their
words with their votes.
Today, the House will vote to disapprove the President's declaration.
I believe that joint resolution of disapproval will pass the House. In
short order, the Senate will have to vote on it. That is going to be
the true test. That will be the metric history uses to determine
whether Republicans are willing to put our country, our Constitution,
and Congress itself over party.
While the President's emergency declaration stumbles its way through
the courts, I hope my Republican friends take a moment to take stock of
where we are. President Trump will be just a blip in our Nation's
history. But for the sake of appeasing a man who hundreds of times made
a foolish campaign promise, never grounded in reality, will they
forever change the course of the separation of powers in our country?
For the sake of appeasing a President who detests any limits or checks
on his authority, will they forever diminish the role of Congress as a
coequal branch of government? We are the longest surviving democracy on
Earth today because there are checks and balances.
I am reminded of words of caution written by George Washington, our
Founding Father and our Nation's first President, in his Farewell
Address. The words are as true today, and we read this Farewell Address
every year on the floor of the Senate. Here is what President
Washington wrote over 223 years ago:
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a
free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted with
its administration, to confine themselves within their
respective Constitutional spheres; avoiding in the exercise
of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another. The
spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all
the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form
of government, a real despotism. . . . If in the opinion of
the People, the distribution or modification of the
Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be
corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution
designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for
though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good,
it is the customary weapon by which free governments are
destroyed.
That is what George Washington said. He warned us against despots.
Remember, this was a man who could have remained President for life,
and he voluntarily stepped down after a second term. He was a man who
did that because he wanted democracy to thrive.
He spoke of the three coequal branches of government--the executive,
the legislative, and the judiciary--and he was reminding us that if you
let one encroach upon the other, you start down the path of despotism.
We don't need that in this country, especially in this age. We don't.
We know what despots are like. We see them around the world. We see
them in South America today, in one country in particular. We see them
in North Korea, where the despot had his uncle executed, his own
brother murdered, and thousands of people are imprisoned, starved, and
dying. A despot who continues to build nuclear weapons to keep himself
in power even as his people die of starvation. In a democracy, that
doesn't happen. We have checks and balances for a reason.
I am going to vote aye on this joint resolution of disapproval. I
urge all Senators to do the same. Have checks and balances.
I remind the President to treat emergency declarations the same way
they have been treated since 1976, the way--certainly in my
experience--Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, and
Obama did. That preserved democracy. Was it frustrating to each of them
at times? Of course it was. I remember long discussions with President
Ford, President Carter, President Reagan, President George H. W. Bush,
President George W. Bush, President Clinton, and President Obama. They
would say: We want to do this. A number of us had to say: You don't
have the authority to do that. And they realized that.
It is not the person who holds the office. It is not the Presiding
Officer. It is not me. It is not the other 98 Members of this body. It
is not the President of the United States. It is not the Members of the
House. It is not the members of the courts. What rules this country is
our Constitution. We are a democracy. We must keep it as a democracy.
Look what happens in those countries where they ignore democracy and
have despots. In Venezuela, people are going without food and medicine.
In the Philippines, where there is a despot, there have been murders of
people who are just under suspicion, encouraged by him. We have seen
the deaths of thousands of people in North Korea because of a despot
who does not care and has no sense of morality.
America is so much better. Follow our Constitution. Obey our
Constitution. Realize there are checks and balances. Have both
Republicans and Democrats stand up and join. Remember what George
Washington said. It was good advice back then; it is good advice today.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent
that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.