Republican US Senator Rand Paul says he'll vote in favour of a resolution to end President Donald Trump's border emergency declaration, likely giving Democrats the votes to pass the measure in the Senate.
Trump, who has promised to issue his first veto if the Senate approves the resolution, declared an emergency last month in a bid to fund a wall along the US-Mexico border without congressional approval.
While the Senate appears unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto, passage in the Republican-controlled chamber would be an embarrassment for the president.
"I can't vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn't been appropriated by Congress," Paul said in a speech on Saturday in Kentucky.
"We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn't authorise it. If we take away those checks and balances, it's a dangerous thing."
Paul's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump's demand for $US5.7 billion in funding for his "great, great wall" triggered the longest-ever partial US government shutdown in December and January.
The government reopened but Trump later declared a national emergency in an effort to obtain funds Congress had approved for other purposes.
Rand became the fourth Republican senator to publicly back the resolution. Assuming all Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them vote in favour of the resolution, it would successfully clear the Senate.
Democrats argue there is no border emergency and that Trump is overreaching. The declaration is also being challenged in the courts.
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