New Senate bill would rein in President Trump on national emergencies — and 15 Republicans support it

Republicans have introduced a Senate bill that would rein in President Donald Trump on his power to declare national emergencies, and 15 Republicans have already said they will vote for it.

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) is heading the effort behind the bill, and he said in a statement Tuesday that Congress needed to retake some of the power it had lost.

"If Congress is troubled by recent emergency declarations made pursuant to the National Emergencies Act, they only have themselves to blame," Lee said.

"Congress gave these legislative powers away in 1976 and it is far past time that we as an institution took them back," he explained. "If we don't want our president acting like a king we need to start taking back the legislative powers that allow him to do so."

Here are the 15 Republicans Senators who are backing the bill so far:

• Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
• Thom Tillis (N.C.)
• Joni Ernst (Iowa)
• Pat Toomey (Pa.)
• Ron Johnson (Wisc.)
• Jerry Moran (Kan.)
• Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)
• Ben Sasse (Neb.)
• Roy Blunt (Mo.)
• Rob Portman (Ohio)
• Todd Young (Ind.)
• Mitt Romney (Utah)
• Mike Lee (Utah)
• Ted Cruz (Texas)
• Roger Wicker (Miss.)

The bill has a laborious name: "Assuring that Robust, Thorough, and Informed Congressional Leadership is Exercised Over National Emergencies Act." It is an acronym for "Article One," where the powers of Congress are enumerated in the Constitution.

However, the legislation would not impact the declaration of national emergency that the president has already made about the border wall.

If passed, the bill would give Congress 30 days after a national emergency was declared to vote to extend it. Otherwise, it would automatically terminate.

Senator Blunt said that he hoped this would give the president the opportunity to live up to criticisms he made of former President Obama of executive overreach.

"Well, the president had problems as a candidate with the Obama overreach, so he's been on record for some time on this topic," Blunt explained.

"I think this will give him a chance to get back to where he was three years ago," he concluded.

Here's the debate over the national emergency power:

Some Senate Republicans are expected to vote to stop Trump’s emergency declarationwww.youtube.com

President Trump has admitted that he declared the national emergency because Democrats in the House of Representatives refused to pass a budget with the billions necessary for construction on the border wall to begin in earnest.