An open letter from 23 former GOP lawmakers published Monday urges Republicans currently in Congress to block President Trump's national emergency, which he declared earlier this month to obtain funding for border wall construction.
With signatories including former Defense Secretary and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), the letter "offer[s] two arguments against allowing a president — any president, regardless of party — to circumvent congressional authority." One is the Constitution's investiture of lawmaking power, including the power of the purse, in Congress, not the presidency. To permit the president to usurp that authority, the letter says, is to undermine "true representative government."
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"[W]hat will you do when a president of another party uses the precedent you are establishing to impose policies to which you are unalterably opposed?" the letter asks. "There is no way around this difficulty: What powers are ceded to a president whose policies you support may also be used by presidents whose policies you abhor."
The letter closes with an appeal to oppose Trump's declaration; a vote is scheduled in the House on Tuesday and the Senate is expected to take up the issue soon. Trump, meanwhile, issued an opposite plea on Twitter Monday, telling GOP senators to be "strong and smart" and "don't get led down the path of weak and ineffective Border Security."
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