President Trump is expected to sign a spending deal that will avert another government shutdown and it’s also expected he’ll declare a national emergency in order to get the necessary funding he wants for a southern border wall. Much of that money would reportedly come from Army Corps and/or FEMA disaster prevention and relief projects, a keen concern for hurricane prone Louisiana.
Senator John Kennedy says he’s aware that’s a possibility
“That is a fact that you have to look at, in terms of where the money is going to come from.”
The declaration would likely be immediately challenged in Congress, but would require an unlikely two thirds override vote in both chambers. At that point, Kennedy says he expects the battle to shift to the courts.
“It would be litigated. I’m sure our democratic friends have lawsuits prepared and they will undoubtedly file in the ninth circuit.”
Kennedy says he would not vote to oppose the President’s State of Emergency.
Kennedy says the idea has so far received a somewhat chilly response from Congress, including from several Republicans. The Senator says he understand the motive after talking with the President on the plane ride back from the Farm Bureau Convention in New Orleans, and says while he would prefer a Congressional solution.
“I also do not believe that if he takes that route that it will be the end of the western order. I think if he decides to do it, he will do it based on power that was given to him by the United States Congress.”
