It’s an acronym for Restrictions Against Illegitimate Declarations for Emergency Re-Appropriations or RAIDER. And, as the name implies, it’s all about stopping Donald Trump from declaring a national emergency to fund his border wall. The Daily Beast reports in this exclusive:
“Roughly a dozen Democrats are getting behind a bill, being introduced Monday afternoon, that would prohibit Trump from building the wall using funds drawn from either the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the Department of Defense’s military construction accounts.
“One of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), said that Congress must “assert its role as a co-equal branch of government” and block Trump from raiding these accounts—which could contain as much as $35 billion for emergency projects—for a “politically-motivated, unjustified national emergency declaration that isn’t based in reality.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could force the Senate to vote on the emergency funding.
“According to one of the country’s leading experts on national emergencies, it appears that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) can trigger a process that could require the GOP-controlled Senate to hold a vote on such a declaration by Trump — which would put Senate Republicans in a horrible political position.”
So Pelosi can force the GOP’s hand in the Senate. There would most likely be major defections if it came to a vote.