Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., declared Thursday he was “skeptical” of President Donald Trump’s “tactic” to declare a national emergency to fund his long-promised border wall.
Rubio — the most high-profile Republican among 16 senators to vote against a new spending deal to avoid another shutdown — said he nixed the deal because it didn’t include disaster funding for Florida victims of Hurricane Michael.
“Three weeks ago, Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly to help Florida communities devastated by Hurricane Michael,” Rubio said in a statement.
“But now congressional negotiators failed to include disaster funding in this package so they can use it as leverage in an upcoming effort to lift spending caps. I will not support using devastated communities in Florida as pawns for some future legislative deal.”
He also raised constitutional concerns with the strategy.
“We have a crisis at our southern border, but no crisis justifies violating the Constitution,” Rubio said. “Today’s national emergency is border security. But a future president may use this exact same tactic to impose the Green New Deal. I will wait to see what statutory or constitutional power the President relies on to justify such a declaration before making any definitive statement. But I am skeptical it will be something I can support.”
Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has stated his opposition to a potential declaration previously, also tweeted his “disappointment” with the announcement.