Members Of Arizona's Congressional Delegation Oppose National Emergency

Published: Monday, February 4, 2019 - 6:40pm
Updated: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 - 8:04am
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Members of Arizona’s congressional delegation are speaking out against President Trump’s threats to declare a national emergency if he doesn’t get funding for a border wall.

In anticipation of his Tuesday night State of The Union address, at least five members of the delegation said they oppose the president issuing a national emergency, including Republican Rep. David Schweikert, who said that such a declaration takes away Congressional power.

“I’m not as comfortable with declaring an emergency because I think in some ways it indemnifies Congress from its responsibility to do its job,” said Schweikert.

Democratic Rep. Anne Kirkpatrick disagreed strongly with Trump’s hardball stance on the issue. “This is a manufactured crisis by the president to be a distraction from his ineptitude.”

Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs penned a recent op-ed in the Washington Examiner in which he wrote, “Walls will help our Border Patrol agents catch drug and human traffickers.”

While Biggs stopped short of agreeing with an emergency declaration, he urged the president to tap into Title 10 of the United States Code to pay for a wall.

Democratic Reps. Tom O’Halleran and Ruben Gallego also raised objections to declaring a national emergency.