WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips has co-sponsored a resolution to end President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration, his office announced in a news release on Monday.
The president declared a national emergency on Feb. 15 after he signed a spending bill that did not set aside the $5 billion he requested for a border wall.
“The president’s emergency declaration is an end run around both chambers of Congress, the ideals of both parties and the Constitution itself,” the Minnesota Democrat said in a statement. “It is not up for debate: the power to appropriate funding sits with Congress. The president has overstepped the bounds of his office, and his unilateral approach to governing needs to stop. Both parties should be working hard to pull the plug on this dangerous precedent.”
The news release notes a bipartisan group of nearly 60 national security officials, including former secretaries of state, defense secretaries, CIA directors and ambassadors to the UN, issued a statement Monday declaring “there is no factual basis” justifying the president’s emergency declaration.