John Garamendi: “I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio). Mr. Speaker, to my good friends on the Republican side of the aisle…”

“I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio). Mr. Speaker, to my good friends on the Republican side of the aisle, this is really about the Constitution. Madison, in the Federalist Papers, wrote that the appropriations power--that is, the power of the purse--is the ultimate power that Congress has to rein in excesses by the President or even by the court. That is where we are today. It is not that there is an emergency. We can all agree there is a problem. Call it an emergency at the border. There are many others-- fires, floods, Houston, you name it. There are plenty of emergencies. It is not that the President shouldn't have the authority and power to declare an emergency and then deal with it. That is not the issue here. The issue here is that this particular emergency declaration by the President was specifically used to circumscribe and usurp the authority of Congress in our power of the purse. Keep in mind, government was shut down for 35 days because the President wanted money for his wall. We debated it. At the end of that, we appropriated $1.3 billion or so for border security, including some fences and walls.…”