Heidi Alexander: “President Trump has been in Vietnam this week, meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. I applaud the…”

“President Trump has been in Vietnam this week, meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. I applaud the President for his efforts to improve the U.S. relationship with North Korea. There is not a more difficult relationship anywhere in the world at this time than that relationship. But I am glad he chose not to seek a deal just for the sake of a deal. As he returns from his summit with the North Korean leader and turns his attention back home, I want to make a respectful suggestion, and that is this: that President Trump ask his lawyers to take a second look at existing funding authorities that the President has to consider construction of the 234 miles of border wall that do not require a formal declaration of a national emergency. I support what the President wants to do on border security, but I do not support the way he has been advised to do it. It is unnecessary and unwise to turn a border crisis into a constitutional crisis about separation of powers when the President already has congressional funding authority to build the 234 miles of border wall that he requested in his January 6 letter to the Senate. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record following my remarks the text of the President's January 6 letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Mr.…”