More than two dozen former Republican lawmakers have joined together to call on current GOP representatives in Congress to terminate President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to pay for his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Some 26 previous GOP members of Congress penned an open letter — subtitled “Honor Your Oath and Protect the Constitution” — which was published on the Project On Government Oversight watchdog’s website on Monday.
The missive states that the oath they made “to put the country and its Constitution above everything, including party politics or loyalty to a president” still “burns within us.”
“That is why we are coming together to urge those of you who are now charged with upholding the authority of the first branch of government to resist efforts to surrender those powers to a president,” it adds.
It sets out two arguments “against allowing a president — any president, regardless of party — to circumvent congressional authority.”
And it ends with a plea:
We who have served where you serve now call on you to honor your oath of office and to protect the Constitution and the responsibilities it vested in Congress. We ask that you pass a joint resolution terminating the emergency declared by the President on February 15, 2019.
Read the full letter here, signed by Steve Bartlett, Douglas Bereuter, Sherwood Boehlert, Rodney Chandler, William Clinger Jr., Tom Coleman, John Danforth, Mickey Edwards, David F. Emery, Chuck Hagel, Gordon Humphrey, Nancy Johnson, James Kolbe, James Leach, John LeBoutillier, Richard Lugar, Pete McCloskey, John R. McKernan, Jr., Thomas Petri, Claudine Schneider, John J.H. Schwarz, MD, Christopher Shays, Peter Smith, Olympia Snowe , Alan Steelman and Peter G. Torkildsen.