President Trump's national emergency declaration to build his border wall will affect Texas more than any other state, and the residents of the Lone Star State are soundly against his decision to use those powers. Three in five Texas voters disapprove of Trump using his emergency executive powers to fund a wall, according to a poll by Quinnipiac University released Tuesday. That includes 22% of Republicans, 63% of independents and a whopping 99% of Democrats. A little more than half of voters said they don't think undocumented immigrants crossing the border with Mexico into the US is a national emergency. Texans are split on their support for Trump's wall: 48% support building a wall along the border with Mexico and 48% oppose it.<doc-sep>Democrats ignored a veto threat and pushed legislation through the House Tuesday that would stymie U.S. President Donald Trump's bid for billions of extra dollars for his border wall, escalating a clash over whether he was abusing his powers to advance his paramount campaign pledge. The House's 245-182 vote to block Trump's national emergency declaration throws the political hot potato to the Republican-run Senate, where there were already enough Republican defections to edge the bill to the cusp of passage. Vice-President Mike Pence used a lunch with Republican senators at the Capitol to try to keep them aboard, citing a dangerous crisis at the border, but there were no signs he'd succeeded. "I personally couldn't handicap the outcome at this point," said Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who's planning a vote within the next three weeks. Senate passage would force Trump's first veto, which Congress would surely lack the votes to override. But the showdown was forcing Republicans to cast uncomfortable votes pitting their support for a president wildly popular with the party's voters against fears that his expansive use of emergency powers would invite future Democratic presidents to do likewise for their own pet policies. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says he can't predict the outcome of the Senate vote. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press) Underscoring their desire to avoid a tally suggesting that Trump's hold on lawmakers was weakening, House Republican leaders worked to keep the number of Republican supporters below 53. That's how many would be needed to reach a two-thirds majority of 288 votes — the margin required for a veto override — assuming all Democrats vote "yes." Thirteen House Republicans joined all voting Democrats Tuesday to support the Democratic resolution. 'We are at war' The White House wrote to lawmakers formally threatening to veto the legislation. The letter said blocking the emergency declaration would "undermine the administration's ability to respond effectively to the ongoing crisis at the southern border." Republicans said Democrats were driven by politics and a desire to oppose Trump at every turn, and said Trump had clear authority to declare an emergency to protect the country. They also defended the president's claims of a security crisis along the boundary with Mexico, which he has said is ravaged by drug smugglers, human traffickers and immigrants trying to sneak into the U.S. illegally. "We are at war on the southern border with the drug cartels," said Republican Rep. Pete Olson. Trump has asserted that barriers would stop drugs from Mexico from entering the U.S. In fact, government figures show that 90 per cent of drugs intercepted from Mexico are caught at legal ports of entry, not remote areas where barriers would be constructed. The president does not get to override Congress in a raucous temper tantrum over his inability to broker a deal. - Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson Democrats said Republicans repeatedly accused former president Barack Obama of flouting the Constitution, which gives Congress control over spending, but are ignoring Trump's effort to do the same. 'Running out of insults?' "Is your oath of office to Donald Trump, or is your oath of office to the Constitution?" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asked Republicans. Some Democrats said Trump's push for the wall reflected a continuation of the anti-immigrant views that helped fuel his election. "Since when do we call human beings in need a national emergency?" said Mexican-born Democratic Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. "Is he running out of insults for people like me?" An incomplete section of border fencing as seen from the Texas side at the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso on Feb. 23. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Pool via Reuters) Democrats also said the crisis is a fiction manufactured by Trump to dance around Congress' vote this month to provide less than $1.4 billion US for barrier construction. That was well below the $5.7 billion US Trump demanded as he futilely forced a record-setting 35-day federal shutdown. "The president does not get to override Congress in a raucous temper tantrum over his inability to broker a deal" with lawmakers for more money, said Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson. Democrat Rep. Joaquin Castro, sponsor of the one-sentence measure blocking the emergency declaration, called Trump's move "constitutional vandalism." 3 Senate Republicans support bill Trump used a 1976 law to declare a national emergency and ordered the shift of $3.6 billion US from military construction projects to wall building. Citing other powers, he intends to shift another $3.1 billion US from Defence Department anti-drug efforts and a fund that collects seized assets. The money would be used to build steel barriers and other barriers and for "law enforcement efforts," said a White House statement. In the Senate, three Republicans have said they will back Democrats' drive to block the emergency declaration: Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and North Carolina's Thom Tillis. One more Republican defection would provide enough votes to approve the Democratic measure, assuming all Democrats and their independent allies back it. Republicans said senators asked Pence numerous questions about which projects Trump would divert to pay for the wall, with Republican Sen. Richard Shelby calling the discussion "hearty." Shelby, who chairs the Senate appropriations committee, which controls spending, said his panel would quickly "backfill" money for military construction with other funds he did not identify. "That issue won't stay alive long," Shelby told reporters. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the chief Republican vote counter, said there may be Republican attempts to amend the House measure, saying Republicans "think they have amendments that would improve it." That suggests McConnell may try adding language that could sink the Democratic resolution or, perhaps, make it more palatable for Republicans. The law requires the Senate to vote on a measure within 18 days of receiving it from the House. Though presidents have declared 58 emergencies under the law, this is the first aimed at acquiring money for an item Congress has explicitly refused to finance, according to Elizabeth Goitein, co-director for national security at New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice. This is also the first time Congress has cast votes on whether to annul an emergency declaration, she said.<doc-sep>The House passed a resolution that seeks to terminate President Donald Trump's national-emergency declaration, which allows him to reprogram federal funds for the construction of additional physical barriers along the US-Mexico border. Mostly Democrats voted in favor of the resolution, but more than a dozen Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the resolution. The resolution needed significant support from Republicans in order to override a veto by Trump. WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives passed a resolution on Tuesday to terminate President Donald Trump's national-emergency declaration, which allows him to reprogram federal funds for the construction of additional physical barriers along the US-Mexico border. The vote is a stern rebuke of Trump, who has prompted lawsuits and widespread criticism over his use of emergency powers to justify building his long-promised wall. But in order to become veto-proof, the resolution will need to gain much more Republican support, which is poised to be an uphill battle for Democrats. The resolution, which was introduced by Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, passed by a 245-182 vote. Read more: The lawsuits challenging Trump's national emergency declaration to build the border wall keep piling up The 13 Republicans who crossed the aisle to reject Trump's use of emergency powers were mostly moderates, including Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Will Hurd of Texas. Former House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers voted in favor of the measure, as did Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, the ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Most of the ultra-conservative representatives voted against the resolution, with the exception of Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Rep. Warren Davidson, the Republican who replaced former House Speaker John Boehner's seat in Ohio, voted for the resolution but quickly switched his vote to oppose it. Additionally, Republican Rep. John Katko of New York did not vote. The resolution had more than 200 Democratic cosponsors but just one who is Republican: Amash, who criticized his fellow Republicans who have decided to back Trump's decision as hypocritical. "The same congressional Republicans who joined me in blasting Pres. Obama's executive overreach now cry out for a king to usurp legislative powers," he wrote on Twitter. "If your faithfulness to the Constitution depends on which party controls the White House, then you are not faithful to it." House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pledged his full support for the emergency declaration in advance of Trump's decision earlier in February. McCarthy told reporters that he believes Republicans would by and large stand together in defense of the president, adding, "I don't think anyone questions his legal authority to declare a national emergency." As for Senate Republicans, few have mustered the energy to rebuke Trump on the issue. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina penned an op-ed for The Washington Post on Monday announcing he would back a resolution like the one the House passed. "There is no intellectual honesty in now turning around and arguing that there’s an imaginary asterisk attached to executive overreach — that it's acceptable for my party but not thy party," Tillis wrote. "As a US senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress," he added. "As a conservative, I cannot endorse a precedent that I know future left-wing presidents will exploit to advance radical policies that will erode economic and individual freedoms." Sen. Susan Collins of Maine went as far as to back the lawsuit against the declaration brought forth by California and 15 other states. "I would not be at all surprised if the courts find that the president's action is contrary to the separation of powers," she said in an interview with a Maine NBC affiliate. "I don't think under the Constitution that he can unilaterally decide to move these funds, which were legally appropriated, from one project to another." Democrats call the emergency declaration an abuse of power but note they could use the same authority for their policy goals Many Democrats have condemned Trump's decision as an abuse of power and a brazen executive overreach. Others have suggested they should use the same authority to enact their own policy goals when the day comes that a Democrat is back in the White House. "You want to talk about a national emergency? Let's talk about today, the one year anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in America. That's a national emergency," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a press conference. "Why don't you declare that emergency, Mr. President? I wish you would. But a Democratic president can do that. Democratic president can declare emergencies as well." "So, the precedent that the President is setting here is something that should be met with great unease and dismay by the Republicans," she added. Democrats who are more left-leaning have advocated for a Democratic president to use the same authority to tackle issues such as global climate change. "Our next President should declare a #NationalEmergency on day 1 to address the existential threat to all life on the planet posed by Climate Change," Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota wrote on Twitter. While the White House has reiterated that they do not believe they are creating a new precedent with the emergency declaration, Democrats are not in agreement. In a meeting with reporters on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer likened it to a constitutional crisis. "People will say we've had a lot of emergency declarations. Well that's correct," he said. "This is the only one — the only one — that has been used to get around a Congress' refusal to appropriate money for a particular objective." "There is no crisis at the border," Hoyer added. "There is a crisis now in defending our Constitution." Hoyer said he is optimistic the resolution will pass both the House and the Senate, and that Congress "will have gained something," even if it fails to have enough votes to override a presidential veto. "This is a vote of principle," he said.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — The House voted on Tuesday to overturn President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the Mexican border, with just 13 Republicans joining Democrats to try to block his effort to divert funding to a border wall without congressional approval. House Republican leaders kept defections low after feverishly working to assuage concerns among rank-and-file members about protecting congressional powers and about the precedent that Mr. Trump could be setting for Democratic presidents to use for their own purposes. “Is your oath of office to Donald Trump or is it to the Constitution of the United States?” Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked her Republican colleagues in a speech on the floor ahead of the vote. “You cannot let him undermine your pledge to the Constitution.” The resolution of disapproval, which passed 245 to 182, must now be taken up by the Senate, where three Republicans have already declared their support, only one short of the number needed for Congress to ratify a stinging rebuke of Mr. Trump’s efforts.<doc-sep>
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a press briefing on the 27th day of a partial government shutdown on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 17, 2019. The measure would terminate the action Trump took to secure billions of dollars to build his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Democratic leaders in the House have called the emergency declaration an overreach by a president who failed to get the funding he wanted from appropriators in Congress. Democrats easily passed the resolution in a 245-182 vote. Thirteen House Republicans joined them — fewer than Democrats would need to overcome a potential presidential veto. The legislation will now go to the GOP-controlled Senate. Despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's support for Trump's action, he will have to take up the privileged resolution to block it. It could very well get through the Senate: only four Republicans need to join 47 Democrats in backing it for it to garner the simple majority needed to pass. Still, Trump plans to veto the bill. Democrats would then have a much tougher time convincing two thirds of both chambers — or 290 and 67 lawmakers in the House and Senate, respectively — to override the president. Last week, Trump told reporters that he does not "think it survives the veto" as "we have too many people that want border security." Even if Congress fails to block the emergency declaration, it will likely reproach his flex of executive power in a way rarely seen during his more than two years in office. It already dealt him a blow on immigration — his signature issue — by giving him only about $1.4 billion of the $5.7 billion he sought for border barriers in the funding law signed earlier this month. In addition, numerous U.S. states and several independent groups have already filed lawsuits challenging the emergency declaration. Trump believes the Supreme Court will ultimately rule in his favor. The White House aims to secure $8 billion to build border barriers by circumventing Congress. He will use the emergency declaration to draw $3.6 billion from the Department of Defense's military construction funds. With other executive actions, he plans to divert $2.5 billion from the Pentagon's drug interdiction program and $600 million from the Treasury Department's drug forfeiture fund. On Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi contended Trump's "power grab usurps" the power of the purse given to Congress in the Constitution. "We would be delinquent in our duties if we did not resist, if we did not fight back to overturn the President's declaration," the California Democrat said. "To not do that would be to abandon our own responsibilities. We do not intend to do that." On Tuesday, McConnell said he "couldn't handicap" how a vote would go in the Senate. The Kentucky Republican expects the chamber to vote before its next recess on March 18. He noted that GOP senators had a "fulsome" discussion about the emergency declaration during a lunch Tuesday, which Vice President Mike Pence attended. At least three Senate Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have signaled they will support the legislation to block the emergency declaration. Both Collins and Tillis face re-election bids next year in ideologically split states. GOP lawmakers will have to balance a desire to back Trump and the Republican voters who overwhelmingly support him with a professed opposition to expansions of executive power. "As a U.S. senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress. As a conservative, I cannot endorse a precedent that I know future left-wing presidents will exploit to advance radical policies that will erode economic and individual freedoms," Tillis wrote in a Washington Post column announcing that he would vote to disapprove of the emergency declaration. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.