President Donald Trump‘s Oval Office address Tuesday night did little to break the impasse between the administration and Democratic leaders on the government shutdown — prompting reports the president will declare a national emergency to build his border wall.

Republican Congressman Will Hurd, who represents a border district in Texas, appeared on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon to react to the speech.

Hurd noted he didn’t see “anything new” from either side, he added a silver lining from the evening was that Trump refrained from declaring a national emergency.

“Had he done that, it would have been a gross abuse of power,” Hurd said.

Don’t exhale yet, congressman: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that such a declaration is “something that’s on the table.”

On CNN, Hurd continued that “building a 30-foot high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security.”

He added that while “there are a lot of drugs coming into our country,” much of that smuggling comes through ports of entry. Hurd emphasized that more funding needs to be provided to the coast guard and to provide better technology along the border.

Watch above, via CNN.

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