VOA常速英语2019--大限将至 边境墙问题依然无解

“Where walls go up, illegal crossings go way, way down. I will get it built”, an unwavering president still at odds¹ with an unwavering House Speaker. “There’s not going to be any more money in the legislation.” So far, no deal has been reached by a bipartisan bicameral² conference committee tasked with finding a compromise on border security before Friday when US government funding expires once again. But President Trump³ holds a wildcard: his authority as commander in chief to declare a national emergency and bypass Congress altogether.

“只要边境墙建起来了，非法入境就会减少，是大大的减少。所以我一定要把这事儿干成。”这位志比金坚的美国总统与丝毫不退让的众议员议长意见不和。“立法上不能再投入更多的经费了。”目前为止，还没有达成任何协议，虽然已经召开了两党两院联席协调会。该协调会的任务是在周五之前，在边境安全问题上寻求折中点，因为周五就是美国政府资助再次到期的日子。不过，特朗普总统还手握一张万能卡片——他的政府作为国家的主帅，可以宣布进入全国紧急状态，完全不需要经过国会。

And I don’t think anybody questions his legal authority to declare a national emergency. Democrats⁴ say an emergency declaration is unwarranted and unwise. It’s when the president interferes⁵ that there’s a problem, so my advice to the president, you don’t want to shut down the government, if you don’t want to have to declare a national emergency which I am opposed to and I don’t think will happen, stay out of it. Some powerful Republicans are also uneasy. Because the national emergencies that have been issued in the past have not been contentious⁶, pretty sure that this one would be. Trump is undeterred tweeting quote, the wall will get built one way or another. In the abstract, the president’s authority to declare a national emergency is not in question. It turns out that the federal statute⁷ books are actually littered with hundreds of places where a president can declare national emergencies in various contexts.

我认为，没有人会质疑特朗普宣布国家进入紧急状态的合法权利。民主党表示，宣布进入紧急状态不仅毫无根据，也不够明智。宣布进入紧急状态是政府在认为国家遭遇问题时的干预手段，所以我给特朗普总统的建议是：不要让政府停摆。如果你不想宣布进入全国紧急状态的话，那跟我的反对意见是不谋而合的，而且我认为紧急状态也是不可能发生的。既然如此，那就不要这样做。一些有权势的共和党人也感到坐立不安。因为此前的任何一次全国紧急状态都不存在争议，但我很确定这次会有争议。特朗普却不为所动，还发了推文称：边境墙不管怎样都非建不可。理论上，特朗普宣布进入紧急状态的权利是无可置疑的。大家会发现，联邦法典上有上百处指出总统可以在多种情况下宣布国家进入紧急状态。

But there is a catch: The situation must be sudden and dire⁸. A true crisis, could be a natural disaster, could be a foreign invasion, something like that where the need to act quickly was so important that the president would need these emergency powers. Because there just wouldn’t be enough time for Congress to convene⁹. Observers note that America’s border security flaws have been debated for decades. I think a lot of Americans look at this skeptically and say what has changed between the beginning of the president’s term and now that makes this such a dire emergency. Trump is expected to explain his thinking later Monday when he visits the border city of El Paso Texas.

但有一个先决条件：必须是事发突然，程度严重。这里所谓真正的危机可以是自然灾害，可以是外敌入侵之类的。不管是哪种情形，要迅速响应的需求十分迫切，迫使总统行使紧急状态下的这种权利。因为肯定没有时间让国会召开会议去商讨对策了。有观察家表示，美国边境安全存在漏洞的问题已经讨论了几十年。我认为，很多美国人对此都持怀疑态度，认为在总统上任伊始至今究竟有何种变化让宣布进入紧急状态成了最后一棵救命稻草。特朗普预计会在周一晚些时候阐释自己的想法，届时，他会访问得克萨斯州边境城市埃尔帕索。

1 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

2 bicameral   

adj.两院制的

参考例句：

• The United States Congress is a bicameral body.美国国会由两个议院组成。
• The Upper House is usually the smaller branch of a bicameral legislature.上议院通常是两院制议会中较小的一个。

3 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。

4 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》

5 interferes   

vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉

参考例句：

• The noise interferes with my work. 这噪音妨碍我的工作。
• That interferes with my plan. 那干扰了我的计划。

6 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

7 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。

8 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

9 convene   

v.集合，召集，召唤，聚集，集合

参考例句：

• The Diet will convene at 3p.m. tomorrow.国会将于明天下午三点钟开会。
• Senior officials convened in October 1991 in London.1991年10月，高级官员在伦敦会齐。