House Republican worries Trump's emergency declaration could help future Dem president enact Green New Deal
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Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., raised concerns Thursday about possible unintended consequences of a national emergency declaration by President Trump. (Rodgers website)
A Republican congresswoman says she is concerned that President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency in order to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border could be used as a legal precedent to allow a future Democrat president push through legislation such as the Green New Deal.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., raised her concerns in a Twitter message Thursday.
“How would Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders use this precedent for a national disaster declaration to force the Green New Deal on the American people?," Rodgers wrote.
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REP. CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS: BLAZING TRAILS IN CONGRESS
Trump has repeatedly demanded more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and plans Friday to declare a national emergency in order to allocate $8 billion in federal funds toward the effort, a White House source told Fox News on Thursday.
Democrats had refused to give in to Trump's call for $5.7 billion in wall funding, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejecting what she called Trump’s "immoral and hateful obsession" with building the barrier.
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On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the news on the Senate floor that Trump would sign a border security package to avert another government shutdown and would declare a national emergency, blindsiding and confusing some Republicans.
“I wish he wouldn’t have done it,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who McConnell interrupted on the Senate floor to make his announcement, told Politico. “If [Trump] figures that Congress didn’t do enough and he’s got to do it, then I imagine we’ll find out whether he’s got the authority to do it by the courts.”
"It’s a mistake on the president’s part," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told the same publication. "I also believe that it will be challenged in court. It undermines the role of Congress and the appropriations process.”
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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he is not “for running the government by emergency, nor spending money. The Constitution's pretty clear: Spending originates and is directed by Congress, So I’m not really for it.”
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Rodgers is concerned that Democrats could use Trump's actions as a precedent to do the same for the Green New Deal. The legislation proposed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is designed to address inequality and climate change, which would be funded through a 70 percent tax on the nation's top earners.
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The plan has been endorsed by nearly all the top 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. McConnell plans to bring the bill up for a vote in an effort to force Democrats to go on record regarding the proposal.