One of the 12 Republican senators who voted against President Donald Trump's use of the 1976 National Emergencies Act to secure border wall funding said his vote came down to the separation of powers.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he is in favor of the border wall but against using executive powers to find money to build it.
"What's important to me is the source he uses to fund that. It should be a combination of sources that Congress has approved of, not those that have a very legally dubious basis," Toomey said. "For me, it was about the separation of powers, and I think that's an important issue."
Toomey added that Thursday's vote, which passed 59-41 before it was struck down by a presidential veto, was a vote on the legality of how Trump secured roughly $6.7 billion of federal money for the wall.
"We voted on whether we approve of what he did. I approve of border wall construction. I don't approve of the way he's funding it," Toomey said.
"I think for decades now, Congress has been transferring way too much constitutional authority from the legislative branch to the executive. That's very bad for a representative democracy, for a republic such as ours. This is one area where we should simply reclaim the legislative responsibility that we have in this regard."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.