美国国家公共电台 NPR House Passes Resolution To Block Trump's National Emergency Declaration

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

A border wall, constitutional powers and what qualifies as an emergency - they were all up for debate in the House today, which voted to block President Trump¹'s national emergency from taking effect. He declared the emergency earlier this month after Congress did not give him all of the money he wanted to build a border wall. His opponents say, in doing so, he is seizing constitutional power that rightly belongs to Congress. NPR congressional correspondent Susan Davis joins me now. And, Sue, tell us, how did the vote shake out?

SUSAN DAVIS, BYLINE²: You know, Democrats³ tried hard to get Republicans onboard to support this. They tried to frame it more as a constitutional argument, not about an immigration debate. And the argument that Democrats are making is that Congress has the sole authority to spend federal funds and that the president in using these emergency powers to spend money against Congress' wishes is a violation⁴ of the Constitution. Here's House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the debate today.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

NANCY PELOSI: Is your oath of office to Donald Trump, or is your oath of office to the Constitution of the United States? You cannot let him undermine the strength of your pledge to protect and defend the Constitution.

DAVIS: It was not a very convincing argument for Republicans. The resolution, ultimately, did pass on the strength of Democratic votes with just a handful of Republicans joining them.

KELLY: And, Sue, why didn't this message resonate with Republicans? Because the message about executive overreach was something that Republicans fought the Obama administration over, exact same grounds.

DAVIS: I think one other thing that this debate has highlighted is the hypocrisy⁵ among a lot of lawmakers on the Hill when it comes to this question of executive overreach. Earlier during debate, Republicans noted⁶ that during the Obama administration, Democrats were not as outraged⁷ when a Democratic president used executive power to do things like try and change immigration laws. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise was talking to reporters earlier today, and he just made clear there's not going to be a lot of daylight between the administration and Hill Republicans on this question.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STEVE SCALISE: At the same time, the president is on strong legal ground to declare this emergency. And when you see the vote today, there will be nowhere near the votes to override⁸ a veto. This emergency declaration will be upheld. But, ultimately, we're going to stand with the president in making sure we can secure this border and confront this national crisis.

DAVIS: Scalise was right. You need two-thirds of votes in both chambers⁹ to override a veto. They did not have that vote today. It was clear that that is not going to happen.

KELLY: OK. So where does this leave things? Because next, this resolution will head to the Senate, the Republican-controlled Senate. What's the dynamic there?

DAVIS: It's a bit more complicated because I think Republicans do tend to take a longer view about the precedents¹⁰ they're setting here. Vice¹¹ President Mike Pence was up on the Hill today. He brought along a lawyer from the Justice Department to continue to make the case, the administration's case, to Senate Republicans on why they should support it. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, wouldn't handicap the vote. He just said there will be one within the next week or two. Democrats have managed to bring along three Republicans. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have all said they will vote with Democrats and against the White House on this.

But, again, you need a two-thirds majority to override the president. The White House has already said they will veto this when it gets to his desk. So I think talking to lawmakers today, the one thing is clear is that they believe that the ultimate fate of this will be decided¹² in the courts. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have said they will challenge it there.

KELLY: All right. Thank you, Sue.

DAVIS: You're welcome.

KELLY: NPR's Susan Davis.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

5 hypocrisy   

n.伪善，虚伪

参考例句：

• He railed against hypocrisy and greed.他痛斥伪善和贪婪的行为。
• He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story.他指责了报纸在报道该新闻时的虚伪。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

8 override   

vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于

参考例句：

• The welfare of a child should always override the wishes of its parents.孩子的幸福安康应该永远比父母的愿望来得更重要。
• I'm applying in advance for the authority to override him.我提前申请当局对他进行否决。

9 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

10 precedents   

引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例

参考例句：

• There is no lack of precedents in this connection. 不乏先例。
• He copied after bad precedents. 他仿效恶例。

11 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。