From Quartz:
Donald Trump’s threat to declare a national emergency at the US border with Mexico is being taken so seriously inside Congress that a powerful committee is preparing a bipartisan challenge to the move.
The Democrat-led House Armed Services Committee, which oversees funding and operations of the Defense Department, has been united across party lines in its opposition.
If Trump declares a national emergency, the first step is to see “how he writes it, and how he does it,” said Donald Norcross, a New Jersey Democrat on the committee chaired by Adam Smith of Washington state. “I am very confident there will be a legal challenge” to any declaration, Norcross told Quartz. “There needs to be.”
Mac Thornberry, the committee’s top Republican, said this week that he opposes using an emergency declaration to fund the border wall Trump demands: “We ought to fund border security needs on their own and not be taking it from other accounts… “