PD Editorial: Time to rewrite the National Emergencies Act

It should not have been a stunning rebuke, but it was. Congress voted to terminate President Donald Trump's phony national emergency. He doesn't have permission to bypass congressional budget oversight and divert Defense Department money to fund his border wall.

The vote was bipartisan. Many Republicans chose defending fundamental constitutional roles over party loyalty. Just not enough. Only 12 Republicans in the Senate and 13 in the House of Representatives voted for a resolution blocking Trump's transparent declaration.

Trump promptly vetoed the resolution. Now it's back in the hands of Congress, though more members of the GOP would need to defy the president if there's to be any hope of overriding the veto.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to call a vote to override - even if she doesn't have the votes to reach the required two-thirds majority. “We are establishing the congressional record on this subject and we will have that vote in the Congress,” Pelosi said.

This shouldn't be a partisan issue. Every Republican should vote to override Trump's veto, not because they oppose the wall but because they oppose executive overreach and believe in the constitutional separation of powers.

Trump's emergency is a sham. Nothing about it withstands scrutiny. Border crossings, though up in the past year, are still near historic lows. Trump failed to make building his wall a priority for his first two years in office, when he had Republican majorities in both houses. And smuggled drugs mostly come through ports of entry. The wall would fix none of that.

Every Trump excuse for this emergency is exaggerated or an outright lie. Meanwhile the funds he would use to build a useless border wall would be diverted from needed military construction projects - including military housing, school repairs, naval piers and airfields. California alone could lose more than $1 billion in military projects.

Funds could also be diverted from disaster relief money Congress approved for projects in California, Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico. That could hit hard in this region as we continue to struggle to recover from wildfires.

Even if Republicans don't join in overriding Trump's first presidential veto, perhaps they can be persuaded to stop future abuses by rewriting the National Emergencies Act. Congress passed this broad law under the presumption that a president would only declare genuine emergencies and that partisans in Congress would stand up to any presidential misuse. Trump and an acquiescent Republican Party have demonstrated the naiveté of that position.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, proposed an amendment to strengthen the act - requiring congressional approval of any presidential declaration. Absent such approval, any declaration would automatically expire in 30 days. That's a good start.

The law also should offer some guidance as to what actually constitutes a national emergency. The current law lacks specific criteria. Lawmakers also should explicitly prevent a president from abusing national emergency authority to settle policy disputes lost to Congress.

Trump's emergency will be tied up in court for a while. The fact that Congress approved a resolution rescinding the declaration could and should be a factor in how the courts rule. Updating the law could also be evidence, but more important it could prevent similar blatant abuses in the future.

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