Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., said he supports an effort from Republican senators to save President Donald Trump from an embarrassing defeat over his emergency declaration for the border because Congress needs to start taking back its legislative powers.
"Congress has given that authority away to the president," Reed told CNN on Wednesday, after saying he backs the move proposed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. "The president, even under the proposed reform that the senator and I are looking to do, still has the ability to act in an emergency, but it forces Congress to have to make a determination in each and every one of those declarations going forward."
The measure supports Trump in declaring the national emergency if he agrees to support a bill allowing future emergency declarations to be checked by Congress.
"If we don't want our president acting like a king, we need to start taking back the legislative powers that allow him to do so," Lee tweeted Tuesday.
However, Reed recently voted against legislation in the House to block the president from declaring the emergency, and he told CNN that was because he agrees there is an emergency.
"In future declarations, I am going to agree or disagree with that declaration by the president," Reed said. "It gets caught up in politics because they pick and choose in Congress when they weigh in on the National Emergency Act."
He said he agrees with Lee about the president "acting like a king" with such orders, as he believes any president "that is unchecked is using authority that is way beyond" his boundaries.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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