House to vote Tuesday to block Trump’s emergency declaration

The House plans to vote Tuesday on legislation to formally block President Donald Trump’s attempt to circumvent Congress to fund his border wall, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday.

The privileged resolution to stop Trump’s emergency declaration — which has 226 co-sponsors, including one Republican — is expected to easily pass the House. The Senate will then be forced to vote within 18 days, posing an uncomfortable test of loyalty to Trump for the GOP-controlled chamber.

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“The president’s act is lawless and does violence to our Constitution, and therefore, to our democracy,” Pelosi told reporters Friday. “Not only is he disrespecting the legislative branch and the Constitution of the United States, he is dishonoring the office in which he serves.”

Democrats are moving swiftly to take the unprecedented step of voting to terminate Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico, which Pelosi described as “frivolous and cavalier”

Pelosi revealed her strategy from Laredo, Texas, where a group of Democrats are visiting the border in an attempt to dispel the president’s claims that an emergency situation exists.

Next week’s vote will be the first of a two-track approach to force Trump to back off his attempt to siphon money from some Pentagon programs toward a border project.

Pelosi declared Friday that there will be a legal challenge to block Trump in court, but did not specifically say it would come from Congress, suggesting that it could be an outside group.

Five House committees — such as Armed Services and Appropriations — are eyeing potential action, Pelosi said, but would not reveal specific details.

“They’ll be working in a very focused and strategic way in what we might do next. Right now, today, it’s about this resolution,” Pelosi said.

House Democrats are framing their fight against Trump as squarely focused on the constitutionality of his actions, with hopes of bringing as many Republicans on board as possible.

One Republican — libertarian Rep. Justin Amash — has so far joined the Democrats but one Democratic aide said Friday that “quite a few” more Republicans are expected to support the measure on the floor next week.

On the Senate side, Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said this week that she would join Democrats and support the resolution, saying Trump’s declaration of a national emergency “completely undermines” Congress.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, filed the resolution Friday morning.

“This is unprecedented,” Castro told reporters Friday. “The president is declaring a national emergency to fulfill a campaign promise, not because there is an actual emergency on the United States border.”

The House will tee up the resolution on Monday night, with plans to vote Tuesday, adding to an already dramatic week in Congress.

The House plan to vote next week on a landmark universal background checks bill that marks the formal launch of the Democratic party’s gun reform agenda. The House Oversight Committee will also hold a much-anticipated hearing from Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.