McCarthy: Unlikely Trump will have to declare a national emergency
WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he does not think President Donald Trump will have to declare a national emergency to get a wall built along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I believe at the end of the day we should get this done legislatively and I’m looking forward to making that happen,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told TMN at a news conference on Wednesday, when asked if the president should bypass Congress if the bipartisan-bicameral conference committee on border security cannot reach an agreement.
The 17-member panel held its first meeting last week. Today the committee reportedly received a classified briefing from border security officials.
The lawmakers are tasked with coming up with a comprehensive agreement prior to Feb. 15, when funding for nine executive departments will expire.
The committee was formed last month as part of an agreement to end a 35-day-long partial government shutdown.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has ruled out the inclusion of wall money in any legislation.
Trump has said that, if necessary, he will declare a national emergency to get the wall built. But the president also has said that Congress should be partly responsible for resolving the impasse over border security.
This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.