The Senate is in a bad place.
Republican leaders just spent 18 hours trying to tame a rebellion from within their own ranks that threatened passage of their $70 billion immigration enforcement funding package. GOP leaders then lost a key procedural vote on reauthorizing a warrantless surveillance program that expires next week.
The GOP reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol ultimately passed on a party-line vote, 52-47, with one Republican voting against it.
But the arduous process of getting the legislation through the chamber saw several GOP senators break with President Donald Trump. It was more than just the usual suspects, a reflection of Trump’s unpopularity and a potential preview of what’s to come as more Republicans seek distance from Trump with November approaching.
As we sent this newsletter, GOP leaders failed to wrangle enough Republicans to clear the first procedural hurdle for a bipartisan compromise bill to reauthorize FISA Section 702. Those GOP “no” votes combined with Democratic opposition — prompted by Trump’s decision to appoint a controversial loyalist as the nation’s top intelligence official — means the program is at risk of going dark. The vote was 47-52.
“I don’t think he thinks about the impact on this and the timing,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said bluntly of Trump. “I don’t think he’s connecting that. Which is unfortunate, because it really has had an impact.”
The twin legislative crises have exacerbated intra-party rifts initiated by Trump. GOP leaders have to deal with a growing cadre of Republicans acting in the name of political survival. Meanwhile, Democrats are exploiting those tensions among Republicans with procedural brinkmanship.
The marathon voting session on the reconciliation bill laid bare the consequences of Trump’s recent moves, from the toppling of two GOP incumbents to the political toxicity of the White House’s handling of an “anti-weaponization” fund for his political allies.
What was supposed to be a straightforward reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement became a major headache for Senate GOP leaders because of this controversial fund. Republicans and Democrats alike tried to add language to the measure to ban the fund.
“This would have been done several hours ago if we weren’t having to deal with some of the issues around the fund, which doesn’t exist — which is the point we’re making,” a frustrated Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, referring to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s pledge that the fund won’t move forward.
FISA in trouble. Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence earlier this week is derailing a hard-fought bipartisan compromise on reauthorizing Section 702.
A procedural vote to kick off the floor process just failed on the floor, even though it only required a simple majority. That’s because, paired with Democratic opposition, there are a handful of GOP senators who oppose any FISA extension. It’ll ultimately need 60 votes in the Senate, which isn’t possible at the moment.
At one point around midnight, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stopped by the Capitol and spent time in the GOP cloakroom trying to twist some arms. Rubio was once the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
As we scooped, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) warned Thune privately that Trump’s appointment of Pulte, who has no national security experience, would make it impossible for Democrats to support an extension of the Section 702 program.
“There was such a, I think, solid path [on FISA] before the president launched this — Mr. Pulte — and I don’t know how we get this [done],” Warner told us Thursday night.
Trump said Thursday that Pulte won’t be nominated for the job permanently, but Democrats want to know who the nominee is before backing the FISA reauthorization. Short of that, or removing Pulte from the job, Thune said he didn’t know if there was anything else the White House could do to move the FISA bill.
Thune said he’s spoken with Pulte and that the Federal Housing Finance Agency director is “committed to implementing all the 702 reforms.”
“This is a dangerous play on [Democrats’] part to try and block or stop this,” Thune told us. “We just can’t have the program go dark.”
The early trouble Thursday. It took Republicans more than three hours to figure out how to deal with the very first reconciliation amendment offered — a measure from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to essentially kill the underlying bill by forcing it back to committee with instructions to add language on the fund.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who recently lost his primary thanks to Trump, had to be convinced to oppose Schumer’s amendment so that three of his vulnerable colleagues who will be on the ballot in November could vote in favor without risking its adoption.
Cassidy spent hours trying to craft an amendment on the fund that the parliamentarian could allow at a simple-majority threshold.
The Louisiana Republican’s efforts angered GOP leaders, who eventually achieved their goal of defeating all amendments while still allowing their vulnerable members to vote for some.
“The fund doesn’t exist. This is about border funding. It’s about law enforcement. It’s about ICE and CBP,” Thune said. “I’m trying to keep it about the main thing.”
Senate milestone. During the vote-a-rama, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) cast her record-breaking 10,000th consecutive vote. Thune, Schumer and other senators took turns congratulating Collins for the historic achievement.
At the exact moment that Schumer was heaping praise on Collins, the Maine Republican’s presumptive Democratic opponent in November, Graham Platner, was on MS NOW being interviewed about new allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women.
To put it mildly, Collins and Schumer have long been at odds with each other — something Schumer acknowledged during his remarks, prompting laughter from the GOP side of the aisle.
