Remember last month when your little “president” declared a national emergency because he wasn’t getting the money for his stupid wall he felt he should get?
Well, apparently some Republican senators have grown sick of his shit, because Newsweek is reporting that more than a dozen of them have filed legislation that would limit Donald Trump’s presidential emergency powers. The move comes just days before they are set to vote on a measure against his national emergency declaration on immigration.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said in a statement introducing the legislation that it is a bid to stop a president from “acting like a king by taking back the legislative powers that allow him to do so.” He said the bill “will go a long way to restoring the balance of powers in our republic.”
The new bill is called the Assuring That Robust, Thorough and Informed Congressional Leadership Is Exercised Over National Emergencies or Article One Act, and it would require congressional approval for any national emergency declaration to go beyond 30 days. If Congress doesn’t approve, the declaration would be terminated.
“In obvious cases, the president should have the statutory authority to respond to an immediate crisis, such as an act of war or natural disaster,” Lee’s office said in a statement explaining the bill. “The problem is that emergency powers are vulnerable to abuse; they can act as a cheat-code that undermines our system of separation of powers and enables the president to bypass the difficult work of enacting legislation.”
Trump has been accused of abusing his power with the national emergency he declared on Feb. 15. Lee’s bill would have no impact on that declaration, but it would apply to all future declarations.
“If Congress is troubled by recent emergency declarations made pursuant to the National Emergencies Act, they only have themselves to blame,” Lee said in a statement. “Congress gave these legislative powers away in 1976, and it is far past time that we as an institution took them back.”
Lee has the support of 14 other GOP senators, including Chuck Grassley of Iowa; Thom Tillis of North Carolina; Mitt Romney of Utah; Ted Cruz of Texas; Joni Ernst of Iowa; Roy Blunt of Missouri; Jerry Moran of Kansas; Lamar Alexander of Tennessee; Roger Wicker of Mississippi; Ben Sasse of Nebraska; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; Rob Portman of Ohio; Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; and Todd Young of Indiana, as well as possible support from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell told reporters: “We’re looking at some ways to revisit the law. There’s a lot of discomfort with the law. Was it too broad back in the ’70s when it was passed? So yeah, we’re discussing altering that.”