Stabenow predicts

Stabenow predicts border deal could survive a presidential veto

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO

Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow predicted Friday that lawmakers working to craft a border security spending package in order to avert another government shutdown will come up with a proposal that could survive a veto from President Donald Trump.

Stabenow praised congressional Democrats and Republicans on the conference committee for working to avoid another partial government shutdown, and said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she’s confident any deal that emerges will be “smart and make sense.”

“And then I think it’s Mitch McConnell's job to make sure we have a vote on that,” the Democratic senator said, adding that “I believe we will have enough votes probably to overturn a veto if the president decided he was going to veto it. I think there's strong bipartisan support for doing the right thing to keep us safe. Which is different than what the president's talking about.”

Any presidential veto would require a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate in order for an override, but it’s unclear whether Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) would even allow a vote on a bill Trump opposes, something he has previously been unwilling to do. Still, many GOP lawmakers have expressed frustration with the recent government shutdown, ignited by Trump's border wall demands, that stretched to become the longest in U.S. history before the president agreed to end it last week.

The president has taken a pessimistic outlook on the negotiations, insisting they are a waste of time if the deal does not include funding for his long-promised wall. On Thursday, the president railed all day against the kinds of physical barriers any compromise is likely to provide for, like fencing.

Though conferees have met only once ahead of their Feb. 15 deadline to strike a deal, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said defiantly Thursday that “there’s not going to be any wall money in the legislation.”

While it’s unclear whether Trump would veto a bill that didn’t contain money for a wall, he said Thursday that he wouldn’t accept such a deal, but he also predicted that lawmakers wouldn’t even be able to reach an agreement on border security.

He also left the door open to using a national emergency declaration to circumvent Congress in order to build the wall, which he falsely claimed was already under construction. Such a declaration would almost certainly be met by legal challenges.