The Wall Street Journal - 12.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Thursday, March 12, 2020 |A

U.S. NEWS

math of the U.S. strike in Janu-

ary that killed Iranian Maj. Gen.

Qassem Soleimani.

It passed the GOP-held Sen-

ate 55-45 last month with bi-

partisan support. It now heads

to President Trump to sign, but

the White House has said the

administration strongly opposes

the bill and Mr. Trump will veto

it.

The White House didn’t re-

spond to a request to comment

on Wednesday.

The votes in the House and

Senate fell short of the two-

thirds majority needed in both

chambers to overcome a presi-

dential veto.

In a statement issued Feb.

12, the White House said the

resolution fails to account for

the present reality.

“The United States is not

currently engaged in any use

of force against Iran, in part

because of the sound policies

and decisive, effective actions

of this Administration,” the

White House said.

House Majority Leader

Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said that

despite the inevitable veto, the

bipartisan votes will send a

message to the White House.

“And it will be a statement

again that war powers, that

Article One of the Constitu-

tion, gives the Congress the

authority and the possibility to

declare war,” Mr. Hoyer said.

Congress has abdicated its

responsibility on war matters

for years, Mr. Kaine said.

But now, he said, a biparti-

san majority in the Senate and

House has made it clear that

the U.S. shouldn’t be engaged

in hostilities with Iran without

a vote of Congress.

WASHINGTON—The House
passed a resolution that would
limit the president’s ability to
take military action against
Iran without approval from
Congress.
The measure passed
227-186, sending the bill to the
president’s desk.
Six Republicans voted with
Democrats in favor. While it
directs President Trump to
end the use of military force
against Iran unless authorized
by Congress, it doesn’t pre-
vent the U.S. from defending
itself against an imminent at-
tack.
The War Powers Resolution
was sponsored by Sens. Tim
Kaine (D., Va.), Mike Lee (R.,
Utah), Rand Paul (R., Ky.) and
Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) in the after-

BYLINDSAYWISE

House Backs War Powers Limit

have come in response to deci-

sions by lower courts that con-

cluded the administration’s

policies are unlawful, or likely

so.

As is its custom with emer-

gency orders, the court didn’t

explain its reasoning. While

some recent matters have re-

vealed deep divides on the Su-

preme Court, only Justice So-

nia Sotomayor registered a

public dissent to Wednesday’s

order.

The case hasn’t been fully

briefed or argued and the

court’s action isn't a ruling on

the merits of the Trump policy.

The Trump administration

has repeatedly credited its

“Remain in Mexico” policy

with being perhaps the single

most effective deterrent for

Central American and other

migrants crossing the border

to ask for asylum. The govern-

ment ramped up the program

last May, the same month bor-

der crossings reached a 12-

year high, and the number of

migrants arriving each month

has since fallen about 75%.

The policy, formally called

the Migrant Protection Proto-

cols, made its debut in January

2019 as the Trump administra-

tion sought alternatives to re-

leasing families seeking asy-

lum into the U.S., where they

were permitted to live for

months, and often years, as

their cases made their way

through backlogged immigra-

tion courts.

The administration has ar-

gued that most of these people

file meritless and even fraudu-

lent claims, and it has taken

numerous policy steps to pre-

vent or deter asylum seekers

from asking for protection at

all.

In the past year, the govern-

ment has sent more than

61,000 migrants back across

the border, where they have

been required to wait in vio-

lent Mexican border cities

while their claims for protec-

tion are reviewed, a process

that can take months. Immi-

gration court data show that

many people placed in the pro-

gram, as many as half, have

since abandoned their asylum

claims.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court

of Appeals, based in San Fran-

cisco, ruled Feb. 28 that the

administration must halt the

policy, which the court said

wasn’t permitted under U.S.

immigration law or interna-

tional treaty obligations.

The appeals court had

agreed to postpone the effect

of its decision temporarily, and

it eventually gave the adminis-

tration a week to seek inter-

vention from the Supreme

Court.

The Supreme Court is un-

likely to give full consideration

to the policy until its next

term, which begins in October.

A spokeswoman for the Jus-

tice Department said the ad-

ministration was “gratified”

for the Supreme Court’s ac-

tion.

coming weeks. His advisers

have said he will spend what-

ever it takes.

The former mayor is ex-

pected to roll out part of his

campaign operation in six

swing states that Mr. Trump

won in 2016 into the new op-

eration.

Details related to that

group are still being figured

out.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bloomberg’s

campaign is making all its ads

and social videos attacking

Mr. Trump available on a new

section of its website titled

“It’s Time to Dump Trump” for

people to share. Many of the

ads targeted the president on

issues like the economy, cli-

mate change, health care and

drug prices.

“Since he launched his

presidential run in November,

Mike has been mounting an

aggressive nationwide media

blitz that exposes Trump’s in-

competence and broken prom-

ises,” the website says.

“He will continue to call out

Trump’s dishonesty and cor-

ruption and will do whatever

it takes to restore integrity

and competency to the White

House.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s new group

would join others like Priori-

ties USA, which announced

Tuesday it would start boost-

ing Mr. Biden. Most outside

groups stayed neutral during

the Democratic primary pro-

cess, as Mr. Trump spent mil-

lions on ads and went largely

unchallenged until Mr.

Bloomberg entered the race

over the fall.

Since dropping out, the bil-

lionaire has also contributed

$2 million to a nonprofit, Col-

lective Future, backing its ef-

forts to register more black

voters.

Gun-control groups funded

by Mr. Bloomberg, Everytown

for Gun Safety and Moms De-

mand Action, have also en-

dorsed Mr. Biden.

WASHINGTON—Michael
Bloomberg’s presidential cam-
paign spent $275 million just
on advertising attacking Presi-
dent Trump, according to the
campaign.
The former New York City
mayor, who entirely self-
funded his campaign before
dropping out last week, in-
vested about $225 million on
31 anti-Trump TV ads, accord-
ing to his team. Of that
amount, more than $175 mil-
lion was spent on local mar-
kets, including in general-elec-
tion swing states, and
$45 million on national buys.
He spent nearly $50 million
on digital ads focused on tar-
geting Mr. Trump. Those ads
received three billion impres-
sions on Facebook and You-
Tube, according to his team.
The billionaire spent more
than $670,000 on anti-Trump
billboards alone, including
some in Las Vegas and Phoe-
nix ahead of the president’s
rallies. In Las Vegas, his bill-
boards read, “Donald Trump
cheats at golf” and “Donald
Trump eats burnt steak.”
Overall, Mr. Bloomberg
spent roughly $500 million on
advertising.
Mr. Trump, pointing to Mr.
Bloomberg’s spending, has
written on Twitter that the
billionaire’s consultants “took
him for a ride.”
The president tweeted after
the Super Tuesday results:
“$700 million washed down
the drain, and he got nothing
for it but the nickname Mini
Mike, and the complete de-
struction of his reputation.
WaytogoMike!”
Mr. Bloomberg, who ended
his presidential campaign and
endorsed former Vice Presi-
dent Joe Biden after earning
only 61 delegates on Super
Tuesday, is expected to launch
a new super PAC focused on
defeating Mr. Trump in the

BYTARINIPARTI

Bloomberg Spent

$275 Million on

Anti-Trump Ads

including Senate Intelligence

Committee Chairman Richard

Burr (R., N.C.) said in a state-

ment that omitted details

about when they would take up

the bill. The Senate is on recess

next week and can’t quickly

pass the bill this week without

unanimity in the chamber.

The legislation would ex-

tend until December 2023 a

handful of surveillance powers

that are based in part on the

Foreign Intelligence Surveil-

lance Act, the post-Watergate

law that President Trump be-

lieves was improperly used to

target his 2016 campaign. Na-

tional-security officials view

the most critical of the tools

as one that allows the Federal

Bureau of Investigation to ob-

tain a variety of business re-

cords from companies if they

are believed to be relevant to

a counterterrorism or counter-

intelligence investigation.

The bill would also end a

program that allows the Na-

tional Security Agency to ob-

tain numbers and time stamps

of U.S. calls or text messages

from phone companies after

getting judicial approval. That

program was created by Con-

gress in 2015 as a scaled-down

version of the bulk phone

metadata surveillance tool ex-

posed by former intelligence

contractor Edward Snowden

two years earlier. Though the

new system was shut down last

year by the NSA amid repeated

compliance issues and is

widely seen to lack significant

national security value, its ter-

mination by lawmakers would

represent a dramatic conclu-

sion to a controversial program

erected in the aftermath of the

Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that U.S.

intelligence officials once

strenuously defended.

Criminal penalties would

also be imposed for making

misstatements to the Foreign

Intelligence Surveillance Court,

the secret court that approves

wiretaps of people suspected

of spying and terrorism. A re-

cent Justice Department

watchdog report found that the

FBI had withheld exculpatory

material about Carter Page, a

former Trump campaign ad-

viser, and made misleading

statements about his relation-

ship with another government

agency when it sought court

approval to wiretap him.

WASHINGTON—The House
voted to renew domestic spying
tools that expire in four days,
overcoming opposition from an
array of factions within both
parties, in an attempt to wrap
up legislative business before
leaving town later this week as
fears mount over the spread of
the novel coronavirus.
The measure, which was ap-
proved by a 278-136 vote, was
sponsored by House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Jerrold
Nadler (D., N.Y.) and House In-
telligence Committee Chairman
Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) and en-
dorsed by Attorney General
William Barr. With time run-
ning short and the prospects
for the legislation in doubt in
the Senate, the national-secu-
rity system was facing the
prospect that a cornerstone of
its program would lapse.
“We applaud the bipartisan
House passage of this legisla-
tion and look forward to voting
to pass it in the Senate as soon
as possible,” Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R.,
Ky.) and other top Republicans,

BYSIOBHANHUGHES
ANDDUSTINVOLZ

As Deadline Nears, Senate

Gets New Surveillance Bill

WASHINGTON—The Su-

preme Court allowed the

Trump administration to con-

tinue enforcing an immigration

policy requiring asylum seek-

ers at the southern U.S. border

to wait in Mexico while their

cases are considered.

The court on Wednesday

granted an emergency request

by the administration to leave

the program in place for now

while legal proceedings con-

tinue. The order blocks the ef-

fect of a lower-court decision

that said the administration

must stop implementing the

policy.

The action is the latest in a

series of emergency orders in

which the Supreme Court has

rescued or revived Trump ad-

ministration policies on immi-

gration, allowing the White

House to maintain its plans

while courts sort out their le-

gality. The high-court orders

BYBRENTKENDALL

ANDMICHELLEHACKMAN

Asylum Policy Can Be Enforced

Asylum seekers prepared documents to show to an agent on the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, in November.

VERONICA G. CARDENAS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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