Congress is one GOP vote away from rejecting Trump's border emergency

Sen. Thom Tillis is a yes on voting against Trump&#039;s border emergency declaration — (Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The most straightforward way to end President Trump's southern border emergency declaration is for Congress to terminate it with a joint resolution. The House is expected to easily pass such a resolution on Tuesday, giving the Senate 18 days to vote on the one-page, 80-word bill. On Monday night, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced in a Washington Post op-ed that he will support the resolution, joining Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Assuming all Democrats vote for the measure, it needs just one more Republican to pass in the Senate.

"Numerous Senate Republicans say that, like Tillis, they despise Trump's decision to declare a national emergency to get additional funding for his wall," Politico says. But based on interviews Monday with more than a dozen of those GOP senators, "most aren't ready to say they will vote to block him from doing so," which would carry a political cost. Trump urged Republicans to reject the resolution in a tweet on Monday, and there's little expectation Congress would override his threatened veto, "but significant Republican defections would give it momentum in the Senate and could raise the specter — however remote" — that Trump's emergency declaration will be killed by lawmakers, The New York Times reports.

At the least, Trump having to break out his veto pen "would be an embarrassing rebuke by a Congress opposed to his immigration agenda," and Republicans leaders are pressuring GOP lawmakers to support the president despite any reservations, Politico says. Democrats are encouraging GOP defections by pointing to the precedent Trump would be setting, citing letters from about 25 former GOP lawmakers and another from 58 ex-national security officials urging rejection of Trump's end-run around Congress, and circulating a list of military construction projects Trump might defund in each district to build his wall. "This isn't about the border," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday. "This is about the Constitution of the United States."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.