Joaquin Castro Says Voting To Stop The President’s Emergency Declaration Is ‘The Most Consequential Vote’ In Decades

“The biggest issue, really, is the Constitution; it’s the separation of powers and respecting the role of Congress,” Castro says.

By Rhonda FanningFebruary 26, 2019 12:48 pm,

Sometime Tuesday, Democrats in the House of Representatives will vote to overturn what they consider to be executive overreach by President Donald Trump. Their bill is a rebuke of his emergency declaration to secure billions of dollars for a border wall.

Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro is spearheading the effort.

On Republicans’ response to his resolution:

“I think they’re having a tough time trying to figure out whether they’re going to stand up and protect the Congress’ role under the Constitution, and whether they’re going to stand up to a president who is trying to build a border wall that most Americans and most Texans don’t want. Or, whether they’re going to worry about a primary in 2020, and falling out of favor with Donald Trump.”

On why he feels it’s important to overturn the national emergency declaration:

“This is the most consequential vote we’ve probably taken in decades that will determine the balance of power between Congress and the president of the United States. And if Donald trump gets his way now, and Congress allows this to stand, it’s likely that he’ll come back again and try to do the same thing on the border wall issue again, or on other issues, and that future presidents will also do the same thing.”

On what’s likely to happen in the Senate:

“So far, three Republican senators have publicly declared that they will support my resolution. We need one more to cross the threshold – in other words, to win a majority.”

On what Democrats would do if the president vetoes the congressional resolution if it passes:

“If he did this, we would challenge him in Congress, we would challenge him in the courts and I think the American people would continue to challenge the president on this.”

On what this challenge to the president is really about:

“The biggest issue, really, is the Constitution. It’s the separation of powers and respecting the role of Congress, whether a president in the future, under the National Emergencies Act, is going to be able to circumvent Congress and declare a national emergency on some domestic policy issue when they don’t get the amount of money they want for something.”

On why he took the lead on the congressional resolution:

“I represent Military City USA – San Antonio. And the money that the president would be taking to fund the border wall, billions of dollars of that would come from military construction projects. It could come from Joint Base San Antonio. Also on that list was the Red River Army Depot and Fort Bliss.”

Written by Shelly Brisbin.