Tester on Senate’s Failure to Override Trump Emergency Declaration that Raids Billions from Military to Pay for Border Wall

Senate had already rejected emergency declaration on bipartisan basis, after Trump veto lacks 2/3 majority to override

U.S. Senator Jon Tester today released the following statement condemning the Senate’s failure to override President Trump’s veto of a bipartisan bill intended to terminate the “emergency declaration” he has used as justification for raiding vital military construction funds to build a wall at the southern border:

“The result of President Trump’s end-run around Congress with this phony ‘emergency declaration’ is billions of dollars diverted from our military to pay for a southern border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. Congress today failed to put a stop to this action—leaving billions more in critical national security projects in jeopardy. But I will keep fighting every way I can to ensure that Montana, and our military bases around the country that help defend the homeland, are protected from this short-sighted, dangerous action.”

Despite the Senate’s bipartisan rejection of his emergency declaration in March, President Trump has forged ahead with his plan to siphon $3.6 billion dollars from the Department of Defense (DoD) and military construction budgets in order to pay for a southern border wall.

As Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, Tester recently proposed a series of amendments to invest in real national security priorities rather than the Trump Administration’s ineffective and wasteful border wall. These included preventing the diversion of $3.6 billion in critical military construction projects the President intends to use to pay for the wall, and would block further transfers by the President that circumvent the will of Congress and taxpayers.