BORDER/DEMS/HOUSE OF REPS/NANCY PELOSI/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “House Democrats will move early next week to block President Donald Trump from circumventing Congress to build a border wall, kicking off a weeks-long battle to pressure Republicans to rebuke the president over his national emergency declaration. Speaker Nancy Pelosi detailed her party’s strategy Friday [2-22-19], one week after Trump announced a national emergency to secure as much as $6 billion for his border projects — funds that Congress had already denied. The House plans to vote Tuesday on legislation that would reverse Trump’s emergency order. That privileged resolution — which has 226 co-sponsors, including one Republican — is expected to easily pass the House. The Senate will then be forced to vote within 18 days, posing an uncomfortable test of loyalty to Trump for the GOP-controlled chamber…Pelosi revealed her strategy from Laredo, Texas, where a group of Democrats is visiting the border in an attempt to dispel the president’s claims that an emergency situation exists. Next week’s vote will be the first of a multitrack approach to force Trump to back off his attempt to siphon money from some Pentagon programs toward a border project.”
–Sarah Ferris, “House ready to go to war with Trump over national emergency,” Politico, February 22, 2019 4:31 pm