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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday the Senate will have enough votes to pass a “resolution of disapproval” to block President Trump’s emergency declaration. According to The Louisville Courier Journal, McConnell also said that he tried to argue against the national emergency declaration with Trump, but he was “obviously” unsuccessful. “I was one of those hoping the president would not take the national emergency route,” he said. “Once you decide to do that, I said I would support it, but I was hoping he wouldn’t take that particular path.” Even if the Senate does pass a measure to block Trump’s declaration, the president will likely veto it.
McConnell expressed to reporters that he was concerned that future Democratic administrations could use the same tactic to give funding to divisive issues—like gun control or climate change. “That’s one reason I argued—obviously without success—to the president that he not take this route,” he said. Last month, Trump declared the emergency so that he could take funds from other parts of government to build a wall along the Mexican border after the issue prompted the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.