South Dakota U.S. Senator Mike Rounds says he's leaning towards voting against a measure to terminate President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mr. Trump made the declaration on February 15th.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution to override the national emergency.
South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson voted with Democrats against the president's declaration.
Johnson says he's been concerned about overreach by the executive branch for many years.
Multiple Republicans in the U.S. Senate have announced they will oppose the President's national emergency declaration.
Rounds is a member of the Armed Services Committee and says the panel has been assigned to take up the measure. The Senator says he continues to review the matter, but currently plans to oppose the resolution.
The Senator says about 120,000 people have crossed illegally this year. Rounds says that has made it difficult for law enforcement to stop those who want to participate in criminal activity.
"They get overwhelmed by the people coming in saying, 'look, I'm here, I want to take advantage of your laws here so that I can stay here.' They have to process those individuals. They don't have the ability then to go out with their current resources, and stop the bad guys who are trying to bring illicit contraband into the U.S. or in human trafficking. They're tougher to find. So, we're overwhelmed with these individuals literally streaming across the border - others are bringing in meth. They're bringing in cocaine, they're bringing in opioids, and they're bringing in individuals to be used in the human trafficking process."
Congressional Democrats assert the President's decision is unconstitutional. ?Minnesota and 15 other states are suing the Trump administration over the issue.
The lawsuit is led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
EPA Administrator Confirmed
Senator Rounds says the confirmation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler is good news for supporters of year-round E-15 fuel.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Wheeler on Thursday by a vote of 52-47. Rounds voted to support the nominee, who was already leading the EPA on an interim basis.
The Senator says he remains optimistic that Wheeler can deliver on his promise to make E-15 available nationwide by the summer driving season. Rounds says progress has been made.
"If they had E-10 before, they can go to E-15. That part's not going to be a problem. The challenge is going to be in those states, where they had a restriction saying you could only sell ethanol a couple months out of the year due to environmental concerns - that's been waived now. And, the rules set in place allow them now to be able to sell, at one of their pumps, ethanol-enriched petroleum products. But, in order to get that, you've got to have tankers coming in that have got the product mixed and can put that into a tank on a consistent basis."
Rounds says the federal government will not force gas stations to offer E-15. The Senator says he thinks the businesses will decide to sell it anyway.
"I think you're going to find there's going to be a lot of people out there saying, if I don't do it, and the competition down the street does...they're going to have higher octane ratings, or they're going to have less expensive fuel products. Maybe, I should get it on the ground floor."
The push to offer E-15 as soon as possible comes at a time when the ag economy is sluggish due to low commodity prices and international tariffs on several U.S. crops.