Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, said Sunday that Congress should “claw… back” the power it gave to presidents to skirt around Congress for funding in times of emergency.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Hurd — whose district includes 820 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border — explained why he joined 12 other House Republicans in voting with Democrats to block President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to get funding for his long-promised wall.
“Ultimately the issue with the use of the word ‘emergency’ that gives the president certain powers… goes against what our Constitution has said,” Hurd said. “Congress, back before I was alive, gave this authority up, that they have the power of the purse to the executive branch in times of an emergency. I think we need to claw that back.”
He reiterated his position against a wall across the entire border — and noted Trump has too.
“What I’ve always said — and I’ve been saying this since 2002 — building a 30-foot-high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security,” he said. “And guess what? The president agrees. He mentioned that in one of his last announcements from the Rose Garden.”
Instead, Hurd said, Congress also needs to be “focusing on things like fixing asylum.”
“Asylum is being abused,” he declared. “That's why you're seeing an influx of families. … We should be using more technology. You can put what I call a smart wall along the border on all 2,000 miles in less than a year and gain operational control of the border, which means you know everything that's going back and forth across the border.”
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