BORDER/GOP/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Senate Republicans are unlikely to be permitted to dramatically amend the House-passed resolution that would overturn the president’s national emergency, suggesting they will be confronted with a simple referendum on the president’s controversial declaration later this week. The Senate parliamentarian is expected to allow few if any significant amendments at a majority threshold, according to people familiar with conversations with parliamentary staff. Some GOP senators, like Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, have been seeking to modify the resolution to profess alarm at the situation on the southern border and proclaim support for a wall even as senators pan the president’s end run around Congress. But because the House resolution is written so simply, there are few ways to alter the resolution through ‘germane’ amendments and the parliamentarian has made it clear that substantive votes are unlikely to be allowed, a senior Republican aide said. That means there are fewer exit ramps from a clash with the president over his extraordinary use of the emergency law, which Republicans fear will set a precedent allowing future Democratic presidents to unilaterally shift billions of dollars for liberal priorities.”
–Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan, “GOP running out of options on Trump’s border emergency,” Politico, March 12, 2019 3:14 pm