Republicans’ long-delayed reconciliation bill funding ICE and CBP for three years is finally heading to the Senate floor late Wednesday.
The Senate is scheduled to hold an initial procedural vote on the package after a 2:15 p.m. vote on a CRA from Democrats. The Judiciary Committee posted updated text of the bill without several provisions that were giving GOP leaders problems.
Senate Republican leaders are projecting confidence that they can get the votes for the bill after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declared the administration will scrap its controversial “anti-weaponization fund.”
But some Republicans aren’t totally satisfied with Blanche’s comments alone. GOP leaders can’t afford to lose more than three of their members on the procedural vote. Another issue for leadership: some Republicans could still vote for Democrats’ amendments on the fund.
At least one Republican — Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — will also force a vote on the fund that he said would simply codify Blanche’s comments. But GOP leaders are trying to avoid inserting language about the fund into the legislation, acknowledging it could prompt a veto threat.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that Blanche’s declaration was “extremely helpful,” and he’s hoping to have the votes for the motion to proceed.
“I think that most of our members feel pretty satisfied with his comments — that they were in a public hearing under oath,” Thune said.
Thune noted that if Senate Republicans want to make any amendments to the bill, it will need to be Byrd Rule-compliant. Thune’s focus is on getting the base bill done. Any amendments that are Byrd-compliant would be set at a simple-majority threshold, making it more likely to pass.
If Republicans can put up at least 50 votes this afternoon, that will start the clock on 20 hours of debate time, equally divided between the two parties, followed by a vote-a-rama.
Leadership aides expect that both sides will yield back enough time so that the vote-a-rama could begin Wednesday night.
What’s in and out. President Donald Trump’s ballroom and Secret Service money are gone. A $1.5 billion pot of funding for the Justice Department is also out.
But Senate Republicans took the opportunity to add a bit more immigration enforcement money in the rewrite. The latest text includes $31 billion for ICE, $13 billion for CBP and $2.5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security. That’s roughly $1 billion more for ICE and almost $10 billion extra for CBP.
However, the CBP funding was moved over from the Senate Homeland Security panel’s portion of the bill. That means the overall topline is still around $70 billion.
These sums are in addition to the Senate Homeland Security title.
Campaign watch. Thune also met with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this morning while the GOP senate nominee is in D.C. for meetings and fundraisers. Paxton was in Thune’s office for around half an hour and didn’t answer questions after the meeting. Paxton — with Trump’s backing — crushed incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas Senate runoff.
Also. Speaker Mike Johnson said he expects to release a proposed third Republican reconciliation bill “in the coming weeks.” Mehmet Oz, the administrator of CMS, will be on Capitol Hill with GOP lawmakers today to talk about fraud in HHS, Medicare and Medicaid.
