CONGRESS/DEMS/LEGISLATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, President George W. Bush declared a national emergency to do something Republicans had long wanted to do anyway: He suspended prevailing wage laws on federal contracts to rebuild the region. Labor unions protested. Democrats signed on to a bill to rewrite the law. Even dozens of moderate Republicans asked Bush to reconsider. But then a single congressman used a parliamentary maneuver – never attempted before or since – to challenge the underpinnings of the national emergency itself. Bush backed down without even a vote..The largely forgotten story of Bush’s capitulation explains why Republicans have advised President Donald Trump against bypassing Congress and invoking a national emergency to build a wall along the Mexican border. In addition to raising legal questions – such a move would inevitably be challenged in court – a declaration would invite Congress to exercise its long-dormant power to revoke national emergencies.”
–Gregory Korte, “How congressional Democrats could fight a Trump wall national emergency declaration,” USA Today, February 8, 2019 4:06 pm