[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1809-S1810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Declaration of National Emergency

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, tomorrow, the Senate will vote on a 
resolution to terminate the President's emergency declaration--a 
declaration that undermines our separation of powers in order to fund 
the President's wall with American taxpayer dollars, despite Candidate 
Trump's repeated promises that Mexico would pay for it.
  The resolution could not be any simpler. All it says is this, one 
single sentence: ``Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, pursuant 
to section 202 of the National Emergencies Act . . . the national 
emergency declared by the finding of the President on February 15, 
2019, in Proclamation 9844 . . . is hereby terminated.''
  That is it in the entirety. There are no political games here. There 
is no ``gotcha.'' There is no discussion as to whether we need a wall, 
whether there is a crisis on the southern border. It simply says that 
this is not an emergency.
  The vote tomorrow boils down to something very simple for our 
Republican friends: Do you believe in the Constitution and conservative 
principles? There are all of these self-proclaimed conservatives. Well, 
the No. 1 tenet of conservatism is that no one, particularly an 
Executive, a President, should have too much power. That has been what 
conservatives have stood for through the centuries, and all of a 
sudden, because Donald Trump says he wants to declare an emergency, are 
people going to succumb?
  The Founding Fathers would be rolling in their graves. They would be 
rolling in their graves for any President, let alone this one who we 
know overreaches in terms of power and who we know has no understanding 
of the exquisite and delicate balance that James Madison, George 
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and so many others created in the 
Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
  Do our Republican friends stand for conservative principles? Do they 
stand for any principles at all, or do they just take a loyalty pledge 
to President Trump and meekly do whatever he wants? It is that simple.
  There are a lot of issues on which we disagree. There are lots of 
times our Republican friends bow to President Trump, but there ought to 
be an exception. And if there ever were an exception, it should be 
this.
  Many of my Republican colleagues rightly stood up and told the 
President not to take this action. Leader McConnell himself said it was 
a bad idea, a bad precedent, contravenes the power of the purse, a 
dangerous step, an erosion of congressional authority. And they, our 
Republican friends, were right. The President himself said he ``didn't 
need to do this.'' That is not an emergency.
  Are we going to say that anytime a President can't get his or her way 
with Congress, they can declare an emergency and Congress will meekly 
shrug its shoulders and walk by and bow in obeisance to any President, 
Democratic or Republican? What a disgrace.
  This is one of the true tests of our Republican colleagues--one of 
the true tests--because it has always been the Democratic Party that 
has been for a stronger Executive. Dwight Eisenhower was worried about 
too much power going to the President, and so was Ronald Reagan. Where 
are our Republican friends now? Has Donald Trump turned this Republican 
Party and its conservative principles so inside out that we can't even 
get four votes to declare that this isn't an emergency, that we can't 
get 20 votes to say to the President that we will override this, 
because this is far more important than any view on the wall or the 
southern border, which we all know has been going on for a long time. 
While the President thinks it is an emergency, Congress clearly didn't. 
Even when Republicans controlled the House and Senate, they did nothing 
about the wall.
  I have talked to a lot of my Republican colleagues. They know what 
this is all about. Everyone here knows the truth. The President did not 
declare an emergency because there is one; he declared an emergency 
because he lost in Congress and wanted to go around it. He has no 
principles in terms of congressional balance of power. We know that. We 
all know that. So to bow in obeisance to him when we all know what he 
is doing is so wrong--a low moment for this Senate and its Republican 
friends.
  When it comes to the Constitution, you ought to stand up to fear and 
do the right thing no matter who is in the White House. My Republican 
friends know the right thing to do. They should not be afraid to do it.
  Last I checked, we all took the same oath of office. What did it say? 
``Uphold the Constitution.''
  There are different views on the Constitution, but I haven't heard 
one constitutional scholar--left, right, or center--say that this 
upholding the President on this emergency is the right thing to do in 
terms of the Constitution. I hope my Republican friends will join us.
  Now, it seems, from what I read in the press reports this morning, 
that some Senators are in search of a fig leaf. They want to salve 
their consciences. They know this is the wrong thing to do.
  They came up with this idea that will change the emergency 
declaration for future moments. Reports indicate that a group of 
Republican Senators are pushing legislation that would ignore the 
President's power grab but limit future emergency declarations--what 
bunk, what a fig leaf. That will not pass.
  To my friend, the Senator from Utah, who I know does have 
constitutional qualms, he is squirming. His legislation will not pass.
  Let me just read you what Leader Pelosi said a few minutes ago. This 
is from her statement:

       Republican Senators are proposing new legislation to allow 
     the President to violate the Constitution just this once in 
     order to give themselves cover. The House will not take up 
     this legislation to give President Trump a pass.

  Do you hear me, my colleagues--my Republican colleagues? This will 
not pass. This is not a salve. It is a very transparent fig leaf. If 
you believe the President is doing the wrong thing, if you believe 
there shouldn't be an emergency, you don't say: Well, in the Congress 
we will introduce future legislation to change it, and, then, when the 
President declares another emergency, we will do new legislation to 
allow that too.
  Come on. This fig leaf is so easily seen through, so easily blown 
aside that it leaves the constitutional pretensions of my Republican 
colleagues naked. The fig leaf is gone. Don't even think that it will 
have anything to do with what we are doing.
  I hope my colleagues will stand strong. What the Republicans want to 
say with this fig leaf is, to paraphrase St. Augustine, ``Grant me the 
courage to stand up to President Trump, but not yet.''
  Next time and next time and next time they will say the same thing.
  Let's do the right thing. Let's tell the President that he cannot use 
his overreaching power to declare an emergency when he couldn't get 
Congress to

[[Page S1810]]

do what he wanted, and let's not make a joke of this by saying that 
there is some legislation that will not pass in the future that gives 
me the OK to vote for this, to vote against this resolution. That fig 
leaf makes a mockery of the whole Constitution and the whole process.