Heidi Alexander: “Tennesseans have asked me: Is there really a crisis on the southern border? Do you support President Trump's border…”

“Tennesseans have asked me: Is there really a crisis on the southern border? Do you support President Trump's border wall? And my answer to both questions is yes, I do. I have urged the President to build the 234 miles of border wall that he asked for in his January 6 letter to the Senate and to do that in the fastest possible way, with a minimum delay and legal challenge, by using the $5.7 billion already approved by Congress. But the President's emergency declaration to take an additional $3.6 billion that Congress has appropriated for military hospitals, for barracks, and for schools--including one in Fort Campbell--is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution that I took an oath to support and to defend. Never before has a President asked for funding, the Congress has not provided it, and then the President has used the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to spend the money anyway. The problem with this is that after a Revolutionary War against a King, our Nation's Founders gave to Congress--a Congress elected by the people--the power to approve all spending so that the President would not have too much power. This check on the executive is a source of our freedom. In addition, this declaration is a dangerous precedent.…”