Craig Gilbert

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WASHINGTON - Among the 13 GOP lawmakers who voted with Democrats Tuesday to terminate President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border were two from Wisconsin: Jim Sensenbrenner and Mike Gallagher.

Both Republican U.S. House members had voiced major qualms in recent days about the move by the president, despite their own support for more funding for border walls.

Each had characterized Trump’s move as an effort to secure funding that had been expressly denied by Congress, and therefore an attempt to circumvent the legislative power of the purse. Each had warned their fellow Republicans that a future Democratic president could do something similar to bypass Congress.

The resolution to terminate Trump’s emergency declaration passed 245-182 Tuesday night. Democrats supported it 232-0. Republicans opposed it 182-13.

Sensenbrenner is a former House judiciary chairman and the second-longest serving member of the House.

He issued a statement Tuesday criticizing Democrats for not supporting more wall funding, but saying:

“It is imperative that no administration, Republican or Democratic, circumvent the will of Congress. Previous presidents have used the authority granted under the National Emergencies Act for matters of which Congress would have supported, but could not do so quickly enough. They did not invoke the authority to subvert the will of Congress ...

This national emergency declaration does not fall within that broad category, and if gone unchallenged, sets a dangerous precedent which will undoubtedly be exploited by future administrations."

In an interview last week, Sensenbrenner said that using emergency declarations to circumvent the will of Congress “destroys the separation of powers.”

RELATED:Wisconsin Republican lawmakers uneasy with Trump's emergency declaration

Gallagher said in a statement that he supported Trump's request to Congress for border wall funding but that, "How we achieve our preferred policies matters just as much as the policies themselves. Conservatives didn’t like it when President Obama did everything through Executive action, and we can't continue to expand executive authority just because our party now controls the White House. Major policy decisions, whether on border security, climate change, gun control or any other important issue, should be made by the People's elected representatives in the most accountable branch of government."

Wisconsin’s other three House Republicans — Bryan Steil, Sean Duffy and Glenn Grothman – voted against the resolution to terminate the declaration of emergency.

Duffy said in an interview on CNN this week that the notion that a Democratic president could claim a similar authority to act on climate change “gives me some reservation,” but criticized Democrats for not agreeing to fund more border walls and said: “If the House and the Senate pass this resolution, the president vetoes it. Regardless, the courts are going to decide, right? The courts will decide what the guardrails are around a national emergency.”

Steil said in a statement Tuesday that “under current law, the president has broad authority to declare national emergencies,” and “because this action is allowed under current law, and because I believe we need to properly fund our border security needs, I voted against the resolution.”