Washington — An effort by Congressional Democrats to override President Trump’s veto on a resolution that would have overturned his national emergency proclamation failed in the Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday.
The resolution’s success in the House would’ve been a humiliating defeat for the administration. But Republican House leaders, who have been in lockstep with the White House since it issued the declaration in February, managed to limit the number of defectors among their ranks.
The measure needed support from two-thirds of the House to overturn the president’s veto. It failed by a vote of 248 to 181, with only 14 Republicans breaking with the White House and voting with their Democratic colleagues.
The Democratic-sponsored resolution to end the president’s declaration, spearheaded by Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, had passed in both the Senate and House with some Republican support, but it was vetoed by the president earlier this month.
After Congress approved spending legislation with only $1.375 billion in funding for 55 miles of physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border in early February, the president declared a national emergency to unilaterally access billions of dollars in additional funds to build his long-promised border wall.
Mr. Trump’s order still faces a formidable challenge in court. A coalition of attorneys general from 16 states, who called the White House’s unprecedented move “unlawful and unconstitutional,” sued the Trump administration days after the proclamation was issued.
CBS News’ Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report.
