WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) voted in favor of a resolution of disapproval to overturn the President’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the southwestern border. The resolution of disapproval passed by a vote of 59-41, with 12 Senate Republicans voting to block the declaration.

“Today’s vote was not a choice between the President’s border wall and open borders – and frankly, the repeated suggestion that I or any of my Senate colleagues support ‘open borders’ is nonsense,” said Senator King. “No, today’s vote was a choice between upholding Congress’s Constitutional duties to direct federal spending or ceding that power to the executive branch. For me, that choice was clear: in order to live up to my oath as a U.S. Senator and defend the Constitution, I voted to assert Congress’s Constitutionally-mandated role and reject the President’s overreach.

“To allow the President’s emergency declaration to continue unchecked would have serious short-term impacts and gravely dangerous long-term implications. In the short-term, we could see important military construction programs across America lose the funds that have already been appropriated by the Congress; in the long-term, it would allow this President – and any future president – to rule by executive fiat, giving him or her the unilateral power to determine policy priorities if the word ‘emergency’ is employed. This directly contradicts our American tradition of checks and balances – and with today’s bipartisan vote, the Senate sent a clear message that Congress will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a coequal branch of government.”

In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing earlier today, Senator King pressed Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Under Secretary of Defense David Norquist to identify which authorized military construction projects are subject to being cancelled or reduced in order to reallocate $3.6 billion to construction of the President’s border wall. Earlier this morning, he stressed the danger of this declaration in an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.