Thirteen House Republicans joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Democrats to pass a resolution that would terminate President Donald J. Trump’s national emergency to build a wall along the southern border.

The House passed a resolution Tuesday to end President Donald Trump’s national emergency to build a wall along the southern border. The bill passed; however, it did not receive enough votes to potentially override a presidential veto.

Although Republicans overwhelmingly voted with the president to sustain the national emergency and keep building the wall, thirteen Republicans decided to join Democrats and help the bill pass through the House.

The thirteen Republicans who voted with Democrats to end the national emergency include:

  1. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI)
  2. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
  3. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI)
  4. Rep. Jamie Herrera Butler (R-WA)
  5. Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX)
  6. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD)
  7. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)
  8. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
  9. Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL)
  10. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
  11. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
  12. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)
  13. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)

Many of these Republicans cited congressional authority granted under the Constitution that only Congress can have the “power of the purse” to spend money.

Massie tweeted Tuesday:

I support President Trump and I support the wall. In fact I voted to fund the wall for the full amount requested by @realDonaldTrump. I also called out President Obama when he tried to use his pen and phone to sidestep Congress on immigration, war, healthcare, and gun control.

 

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers attempted to equate former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal alien amnesty to President Trump’s national emergency to build the wall as one reason she voted for the resolution. However, one federal district judge ruled in August 2018 that DACA was illegal, whereas many lawyers have argued that Trump has the authority under the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to reappropriate money to build the wall.

Rep. Hurd once charged in January that the border crisis is a “myth,” although in a tweet Tuesday he now says that “we have a problem at the border.”

Hurd wrote:

We have a problem at our border which is why I have supported over $220B for homeland security including technology, manpower and barriers. But possibly taking money from Joint Base SA, Laughlin AFB and Fort Bliss will not help. That’s why I voted against the national emergency.

President Trump tweeted Monday that without “strong borders,” we do not have a country.