WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, on Thursday released the following statement after the U.S. Senate, under the National Emergencies Act, voted to reject President Trump’s national emergency declaration to build a wall along the Southern border. A bipartisan group of Senators voted in favor of the resolution which passed 59-41, after the bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month. After shutting the federal government down for 35 days, leaving over 800,000 federal employees either furloughed or working without pay, Trump declared a national emergency to divert already appropriated money from counter-drug funding and military construction projects to build the wall. The resolution will now go to the president’s desk.

“Let’s not forget how we got here. Donald Trump shut down the government for 35 days because Democrats and Republicans wouldn’t give him money for a pointless and ineffective border wall. Then, instead of accepting the budget Congress eventually passed and he signed, the president decided to go it alone and declare a made up ‘emergency’ to get his way. Today, Congress did its job with a big bipartisan vote to end this president's reckless, dangerous emergency declaration,” said Murphy.

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