[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 144 (Tuesday, September 10, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        National Emergencies Act

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I begin this morning with some news for 
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. As stipulated by the National 
Emergencies Act, Democrats will once again force a vote to terminate 
the President's national emergency declaration. The provisions of the 
National Emergencies Act dictate that the resolution of disapproval be 
privileged and therefore must be voted upon.
  As everyone no doubt remembers, the Trump administration declared a 
national emergency in February of this year after Congress repeatedly 
denied the President funding for the construction of a border wall that 
he promised Mexico would pay for. A few weeks ago, the administration 
released the list of military construction projects it has planned on 
canceling in order to steal money for the President's wall.
  The President's emergency declaration was and is an outrageous power 
grab by a President who refuses to respect the constitutional 
separation of powers. I say to all of my colleagues, this issue rises 
to a large and vital constitutional issue: Does our country truly have 
checks and balances, particularly when we have such an overreaching 
President?
  We all must consider the dangerous precedent this would set if 
Presidents could declare national emergencies every time their 
initiatives fail in Congress. It is outrageous. There is balance of 
powers. The President failed in Congress. He didn't say it was an 
emergency then, but he used the national emergency law, which is 
intended for true national emergencies--floods, states of war--and then 
overruled the will of the people as voiced in the Congress. This is so 
wrong. The President has clearly attempted to usurp the power of the 
purse given exclusively to the Congress by the Constitution to take 
funding from projects we have approved and give it to projects we have 
repeatedly declined to approve.
  This goes to our democracy. This goes to how the Founding Fathers set 
up that delicate balance. We have never had such a President overreach 
on an emergency basis. The recourse for such a brazen power grab should 
be an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the Congress to terminate the 
emergency declaration and reassert our constitutional authority.
  Most of my colleagues know this is wrong. In fact, when we had a vote 
the last time, 59 Senators--including a good number of Republicans--
voted against the emergency. What adds insult to injury is the 
President stealing the money from our military projects that protect 
our Nation, support military families, local economies, and local 
schools.
  The Trump administration has proposed pilfering funds from projects 
in 23 States, 3 U.S. territories, and military installations in 20 
countries, including $80 million from projects in North Carolina, $30 
million in Arizona, and even a middle school in Kentucky. How do we say 
to the men and women who risk their lives for us and whose families 
sacrifice that the President is taking the money away, and we are going 
to shrug our shoulders--not this Senator, not this Member and not, I 
believe, every Member on our side and not a whole bunch on the 
Republican side.
  We need more people to join us. I hope we will see an even larger 
majority stand up for both the Constitution and the military and its 
Members and their families. Democrats and Republicans alike should vote 
to terminate the President's national emergency declaration, and you 
can be sure we will make sure everyone will have a chance to do so 
within the next month.
  If we don't do it, how many more emergencies will the President 
declare? Whom else will he take money from and to use for purposes he 
wants but that Congress doesn't and that the American people are 
largely opposed to?