[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 154 (Tuesday, September 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DECLARATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY

  Mr. UDALL. Madam President, we are at a crucial point in our 
democracy, with a big decision to be made. Tomorrow, we can correct 
this unconstitutional violation by the President of the United States 
of taking military money, military readiness money, national security 
money, and moving it over for a border wall.
  Canceling these 127 projects is not just a one-off. Let's remember 
that. We all know the President fully intends to keep at it. It has 
already been reported that if the President doesn't get the $5 billion 
he has requested for his wall in 2020, the next budget year, the 
administration plans to take another $3.6 billion from the Pentagon's 
construction budget. This President will not stop raiding funds we have 
appropriated, unless we stop him and terminate his sham emergency 
declaration.
  The careful planning for the 127 canceled projects contrasts sharply 
with the administration's haphazard rush to build the President's wall. 
The President wants 500 miles of wall before the 2020 election. To do 
so, the administration may need to skirt the Federal procurement 
process and aggressively take lands away from private landowners 
through eminent domain.
  Don't worry, says the President to his staff: I will pardon you if 
you break any laws.
  This is no way to run a government, and, certainly, no way to spend 
taxpayer dollars.
  Don't get me wrong. I support strong border security. We need well-
trained officers, mobile assets, surveillance technology, and adequate 
resources. But a multibillion dollar wall is wasteful, ineffective, and 
offensive.
  Now, I know some in this Chamber disagree with that opinion. The 
place to debate and decide how we spend taxpayer dollars to keep our 
border secure is in the Appropriations Committee, its various 
subcommittees, and on the floor of the Senate. That is what the 
Constitution says.
  James Madison wrote in Federalist 84: ``An elective despotism was not 
the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government 
should be so divided and balanced . . . that no one could transcend 
their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by 
the others.''
  It is time for this body to check and restrain the executive branch. 
The President is invading our constitutional prerogative. He is not a 
despot. His constitutional powers are limited. It is up to us to 
support and defend the Constitution of the United States, as we swore 
an oath to do, and to do the work we were elected to do.
  Madam President, 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. WYDEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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