Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following today:
Senator Murray Denounces President Trump’s Plan to Bypass Congress and Declare Phony National Emergency, Votes to Keep Government Open and Reject President Trump’s Wasteful Wall
President
Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency comes the same day as
the Senate passes a bipartisan bill to avoid second shutdown
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator
Patty Murray (D-WA) sharply criticized President Trump’s plan to
declare a national emergency and go around Congress to try and get
funding for his wasteful wall on the southern U.S. border. The
announcement came minutes before the Senate passed bipartisan
legislation to keep federal government agencies funded and avoid a
second Trump shutdown.
“For President Trump to declare a state of
emergency and circumvent Congress and the American people based on lies
and a manufactured crisis is an outrageous, horrific, and un-American
abuse of power and I can only hope that he listens to people across the
country and reverses course immediately. The idea that the President not
being able to pass his wasteful wall spending through Congress—a wall
that he promised Mexico would pay for and that wouldn’t even be built
for years—constitutes an ‘emergency’ is absolutely absurd and deeply
wrong. Democrats and Republicans agree on the need to invest in
responsible border security and tackle very real humanitarian issues,
but there is absolutely no ‘emergency’ and absolutely no justification
for President Trump to use this as an excuse to violate our Constitution
and laws.
“If President Trump takes this
unprecedented step, every American who believes in the Constitution and
the separation of powers in our great republic should be shocked and
angry. If President Trump opens the door to presidents declaring fake
emergencies to fund spending they can’t persuade the people’s
representatives in Congress to support, then a dangerous precedent has
been set that puts our country on a slippery and very dangerous slope.
What would stop this president from declaring another emergency the next
time he wants to do something that Congress doesn’t want? This is not
the way our government is supposed to work, and this is not remotely
what was intended when these emergency authorities were created. I am
going to stand with Democrats, Republicans, and every American who is
concerned by this and we will fight back.
“While President Trump is threatening to
move forward with this un-American and unconstitutional maneuver, today
Democrats and Republicans in Congress once again did their job by
hammering out a bipartisan compromise that rejected President Trump’s
wasteful border wall and instead invests in our national priorities and
avoids another completely unnecessary shutdown. On behalf of federal
workers and families in Washington state and around the country,
President Trump must sign this bipartisan bill to avoid another Trump
Shutdown—and he must listen to the will of the people and not take
unilateral and unconstitutional action to violate this bipartisan
agreement.”
