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After a marathon 18-hour vote, Senate Republicans advanced roughly $70 billion in funding for immigration enforcement agencies that had been carved out of an earlier funding deal to reopen the rest of the Department of Homeland Security. The funds would extend through the remainder of President Trump’s time in the White House.
One Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against it.
The package now heads for a vote in the House of Representatives, which could happen as early as next week.
While the Senate passage is a victory for Republicans, who have been trying to pass immigration enforcement for months, the overnight vote-a-rama exposed rifts within their ranks.
At the center of it all is the Trump administration’s proposed $1.8 billion fund to distribute taxpayer dollars to people who allege they have been politically targeted by the government, perhaps including Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
The fund originated as part of an out-of-court settlement to resolve a $10 billion lawsuit brought by President Trump against his own government over the 2019 leak of his tax records. It has been unpopular among congressional lawmakers, including Republicans — many of whom were present at the Capitol when it was attacked in 2021.
“We have a lot of members who are concerned, obviously,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters last month.
“People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., wrote on X. Cassidy recently lost his reelection race to a Trump-backed primary challenger.
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, sought to ease such concerns during testimony in the House on Tuesday, telling lawmakers the administration was dropping plans for the fund. But President Trump introduced new uncertainty on Wednesday, telling reporters in the Oval Office he was unsure.
“I’d have to ask the lawyers,” he said. “I don’t know.”
An effort from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Thursday night to send the bill back to the Senate Judiciary Committee to kill the fund was open for several hours on the floor, and had support from three Republicans up for re-election this November: Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Jon Husted of Ohio.
Republican senators also offered amendments to limit the fund, including an effort from Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., to redirect funds towards fraud enforcement.
Eight GOP senators supported an amendment that would prevent payouts from the fund to Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
Repeated delays
The fight over the weaponization fund was only the latest controversy to sidetrack the immigration enforcement package, which the president originally asked Congress to pass by June 1.
Republicans were forced to use a special procedure known as reconciliation to skirt the Senate’s de facto 60-vote threshold for most legislation and fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol after Democrats refused to lend their support.
Democrats were hoping to force negotiations over reforms to immigration enforcement practices, including restrictions on face-coverings and a body camera mandate, after federal agents killed two American citizens in Minnesota earlier this year. The fight led to the longest agency shutdown in U.S. government history. The Department of Homeland Security was shuttered for 76 days.
