Senate voting on Donald Trump’s emergency order could drag under a rarely used procedure, which is believed to be a first for the chamber.
The law allows for up to 15 days of committee review— in this case, at the Armed Services panel — with a full Senate vote three days later. Senators, though, said the process could be expedited.
At issue is President Trump’s longstanding vow to build a wall along the 2,100-mile southwestern border, his signature campaign promise. He has long since dropped any pretense that money for the wall would come from Mexico, which he initially loudly claimed would be the source of funding.
Earlier this month, Congress approved a huge spending bill providing nearly $1.4bn (£1.1bn) to build 55 miles of border barriers in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, ending a dispute that had led to a record 35-day partial shutdown of the government.
The president had demanded $5.7bn (£4.3bn) for the project and the national emergency declaration grants him emergency powers to divert $3.6bn (£2.7bn) from military construction projects towards the wall.
Lawmakers in both parties are recoiling at the politically-toxic prospect of losing cherished projects at back-home military bases. The Defense Department has yet to identify, which projects may face the axe.
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