[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 26, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1462-S1463]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Declaration of National Emergency

  Mr. TILLIS. Well, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I took a position 
that I think some people consider to be unpopular--particularly some of 
my friends back in my State--that I thought I would come back and 
explain. It has to do with the President's Executive action. It also 
has to do with communicating an important and somber subject.
  There is a crisis at the border. I have been there. I didn't read 
about it. I didn't watch it on TV. I didn't read a tweet about it. I 
invested time down

[[Page S1463]]

there, hours and hours with border security. I was on shallow draft 
boats. I was on horseback. I have been on ATVs. I spent a lot of time 
down at the border, and the one thing I will tell you is that the 
President is absolutely right. There is a crisis on the border--and not 
only on the southern border, but I will state that ranchers on the 
northern border also believe they have challenges that this President 
is right to address.
  I also happen to agree with a good portion of how the President is 
going to do it after Congress failed to do its job. Keep in mind that 
over the last year, we have had on this floor Democrats and Republicans 
voting for as much as $25 billion for border security--Democrats and 
Republicans--and now we are fighting over a fraction of that.
  The President needs to act. He got an appropriation of about $1.5 
billion through the negotiated settlement a couple of weeks ago, and 
now he is taking the only action he can until Congress acts, and that 
is to figure out other sources of funding that he believes he can use 
within current statutory limits. The way he has done that is he has 
first taken the $1.3 billion that Congress did appropriate. He has 
another $2.5 billion and another $600 million that I believe he is 
right to reprogram, send to the southern border, and probably make some 
investment in the northern border.
  Here is where I have a respectful difference of opinion with the 
President and the administration: It is the emergency order, that under 
the emergency powers act, he is using his authority to appropriate the 
remaining funds.
  First off, those funds will come what we call the MILCON budget. That 
is military construction. Right now, we are trying to find out what 
that means--which projects we think are critical to help the readiness 
of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines; which investments that we 
were going to make, that we have already determined we should make in 
military construction, are going to be put on hold while we reprogram 
those dollars to go to the southern border.
  The real problem I have is that this is only a fraction of what we 
all know we need to secure the border.
  I want to go back to the humanitarian crisis, though. My wife and I 
had an interesting discussion the other night. She wasn't too happy 
when I took this position originally. I am still not sure if she is 
happy.
  But to understand why I respectfully disagree with the President, you 
have to understand, again, as I started this discussion, that there is 
a crisis. There are people dying. There are millions of doses of poison 
coming across the border every single year that are killing tens of 
thousands of people. That is a crisis. There are thousands of people 
crossing the border and dying. They have what they call coyotes, human 
traffickers who will get them across the border, get people who will 
pay thousands of dollars to cross the border, and then they will say: 
Civilization is just an hour away.
  It is an hour plane ride away. Most people don't understand the sheer 
size and scale of Texas, particularly those crossing the border in the 
dead of night, working with basically organized crime. You have to pay 
a toll to get through the so-called plazas that run the northern border 
of Mexico.
  My problem right now has to do with an Executive order, the emergency 
declaration that the President intends to send to Congress.
  My wife and I were having a discussion. She said: You just said you 
agree with the President that there is a crisis on the border; you 
agree with the President that we need to send resources down to the 
southern border and work on the northern border; you agree that 
Congress has failed to act; and you agree that if you were President, 
you would do exactly what he is doing.
  I said yes.
  She said: Why don't you support it?
  I said: Because I am not the President. I am a Member of the U.S. 
Senate. I am a Member of a coequal branch who actually believes that 
this action falls within our purview. Now we are going to find out 
because I am sure we are going to be challenged in the courts. But I 
also worry not so much about this one--frankly, even the way this money 
is going to be programmed, I agree with. What I worry about are future 
Presidents and what they may do if we set this precedent going into the 
future.
  We actually have a Democratic candidate running for President--this 
is one hypothetical. There have been some far-flung ones that I am not 
sure I completely agree with, but let me give this one. It relates to 
border security. We have someone who is a Member of this body who has 
publicly said that their priority, if they were elected to be 
President, would be to tear down borders, tear down walls, build 
bridges, and open the borders. Well, if you argue that there is a 
humanitarian crisis--and I have said there is already is one--what 
would prevent that President from issuing an Executive order that would 
divert military construction funding to tear down the walls that are 
going to be built now? If we give this President--a President I support 
and a President whose policies and priorities I agree with--that 
authority, that could be aiding and abetting a future President and 
empowering them beyond what I believe their authorities are, vested in 
the Constitution in article II.
  So I have come here today in part to maybe take another stab at 
explaining to my wife why I have taken this position but also to 
explain to the American people and folks in North Carolina and across 
this country. I agree with the President. I know we have a crisis we 
have to take care of. We have a national security crisis, a homeland 
security crisis, and a humanitarian crisis. It is not the end; it is a 
portion of the means.
  I applaud the President for taking the action up here and getting 
things going. I hope that over time, we can find a way to fully fund 
the border strategy on a bipartisan basis and also address other 
immigration issues that I believe are pressing for this Nation.
  Madam President, thank you for allowing me to come to the floor and 
explain my position.
  If anybody in North Carolina has any questions, I know they know how 
to get ahold of me because my phones are blowing up right now. But I do 
want to explain it to them in a way that makes sense. I am a steward of 
the U.S. Senate. I am a steward of the article I branch. That matters 
to me.
  Thank you, Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.