WASHINGTON –– Senate Democrats plan to force a vote on a resolution of disapproval to stop President Donald Trump from diverting funds from military construction projects to build a wall along the southern border.
Facing a tough re-election campaign next year, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) refused to say whether he will support a resolution to block, among other things, the Trump administration’s plan to divert millions of dollars from a Colorado military project that Gardner was assured would go untouched.
Gardner told POLITICO last week that he had not seen the resolution of disapproval, but when asked if he still supports the national emergency declaration, he avoided the question and argued that “the Democrats refuse to fund the border.”
His office did not respond to repeated requests for comment from the Colorado Times Recorder.
Gardner faced a backlash at home after his first vote to uphold the emergency declaration, losing a key endorsement from The Denver Post. He told reporters after the March vote that the Trump administration made certain to him that no funds would be taken from Colorado projects for a border wall.
Peterson Air Force Base, however, will lose an $8 million investment for a space control facility, according to a press release by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO). This came just days before the U.S. Space Command held a ceremony to celebrate a new location at Peterson.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced his intentions to introduce another resolution after senators were informed that the Trump administration will divert $3.6 billion –– funds already allocated by Congress for 127 military construction projects –– to build a southern border wall.
As the minority, Democrats may introduce a privileged resolution of disapproval to end Trump’s national emergency declaration under the National Emergency Act, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) must allow.
“We all must consider the dangerous precedent this would set if presidents may declare national emergencies every time their initiatives fail in Congress,” Schumer said on the Senate floor last week.
Calling the Trump administration’s decision “grossly irresponsible,” Bennet’s office confirmed with the Colorado Times Recorder that he will vote in favor of the upcoming resolution. Bennet voted in favor of the first resolution in March, and spoke against the Trump administration’s desire for wall.
“Having failed to get Mexico to pay for the wall, having failed to get a Republican Congress to pay for the wall, [Trump] now says he’s going to declare a national emergency to pay for the wall. We must ask ourselves whether this is an appropriate use of emergency power,” Bennet said on the Senate floor before voting against the emergency declaration in March.
Trump signed the national emergency declaration to fund a wall on the southern border in February despite failing to secure funding for a wall from a Republican-led Congress during his first two years in office.
Trump also told reporters that he did not need to issue an Executive Order, but it would be much faster to obtain the necessary funds.
“I just want to get it done faster, that’s all,” Trump said.
