Senate Votes to End National Emergency at the Border

The senate has voted to cancel the President's national emergency. The vote passed 59-41

While a lot of big votes on the president's policies often focused on only 2-3 republicans switching sides, this vote had 12 republicans voting against the president

The Senate voted 59-41 on Thursday to cancel President Donald Trump's national security declaration to fund a wall on the border, as 12 Republicans joined Democrats in an unusual rebuke of the president.

Trump has vowed to veto the measure, which would block him from making an end run around Congress to obtain billions of federal dollars that have been set aside for other purposes to build the wall he has promised along the border with Mexico.

The vote could play a role in coming lawsuits challenging the emergency declaration. Before the vote, nine Republican senators said they would support the measure: Jerry Moran of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mike Lee of Utah, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine.

The number of GOP defections grew when the final votes were tallied to include Marco Rubio of Florida, Roy Blunt of Missouri and Roger Wicker of Mississippi. Moran and Alexander have announced that they don't plan to seek re-election next year, while Collins is up for re-election in 2020.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-vows-veto-resolution-terminating-his-national-emergency-declaration-n983106

My favorite part of this whole charade was when they tried to pass a bill that would have prevented future abuses of the law, but not Trump's.

I'm confused on this. Can't his veto be overridden in the Senate? I thought that's when they'd vote to overrule Trump's declaration. What the hell is the point of this if he can simply veto it and that's it, cant it be overturned?

You need 2/3´s majority to override a presidents veto and so far they are around 10 votes short of reaching that mark and it´s in both chambers.

So yes this is a pointless endeavour as such but it´s also meant to send a clear message to Trump.

@Jacanuk: so essentially it’s empty posturing by Republicans who wish to appear that they’re beholden to the Constitution but know they’re going to get their way anyway that will act against it as Trump will succeed?

Yep, it pretty much is and also they have their eyes set on the 2020 election.

A lot of Republican senators are up for re-election, 22 out of 34 to be exact

If nothing else this is probably going to look really shitty when the courts start picking up the national emergency case, among a dozen other reasons.

Maybe posturing, but I think some of them realize the long term implications. If this national emergency stands, there will be nothing to stop say, a president Bernie Sanders from declaring climate change an national emergency. The Pentagon has already released a report citing it as a huge threat to national security, so he would have that waiting for him to use as a justification.

Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but it's the first thing that came to my mind when this whole showdown started. And I'm not even that smart.

Perhaps but considering this is in everyone's best interest to be decided in the supreme court, this seems like it´s just posturing unless they have ulterior motives and don´t want the supreme court to decide, just in case the chips fall down on Trump's number.

Or maybe I am just being too pessimistic about the character of our politicians.

No shit. What a limp attempt to save face. They just opened up a can of worms if a democrat president gets into office.