Getting the party-line ICE and CBP funding bill back on track is shaping up to be one of the steepest challenges Republican leaders have faced this Congress.
The GOP reconciliation bill was headed for passage before it was derailed last week amid Republican opposition to the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
While Senate Republicans largely agree they need to address the deeply controversial fund, there are vastly different views about how far to go. Any new legislative language will also need to pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian and the House — provided it gets GOP senators’ backing at all.
President Donald Trump and top administration officials have made clear they don’t want the proposed fund changed or curtailed, even as Senate Majority Leader John Thune warns the White House needs to help resolve this mess. It all comes as tensions between Senate Republicans and Trump are at an all-time high.
“It was a very smart decision to delay the reconciliation vote,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told us. “We want to make sure that ICE and CBP are funded, but we’ve got to do it in the appropriate way.”
The political optics of the president’s proposed $1.776 billion fund are growing worse as prominent Trump supporters and allies say they’ll file claims for payments, including some convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Senate Republicans’ broader frustrations with Trump over his successful purges of GOP incumbents are hanging over this whole process, too. Plus, a possible diplomatic agreement with Iran has upset GOP hawks. Trump went to Truth Social on Sunday night to defend the looming deal.
Republican leaders are concerned that spending extra time on the reconciliation package will have ripple effects on the rest of their legislative agenda, including the June 12 FISA deadline. The Senate is scheduled to return from its Memorial Day recess next week.
Open hostility. Thune decided to punt the reconciliation bill last Thursday after a contentious Senate Republican Conference meeting with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
GOP senators were dumbfounded as Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, kept defending the “anti-weaponization” fund even as he was warned of the potential political backlash.
More than 20 Senate Republicans spoke out during the meeting, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on his podcast, confirming our reporting from immediately after the hostile meeting.
Thune delayed floor votes on the reconciliation bill because several Republicans indicated they’d back Democratic amendments targeting the fund during the vote-a-rama. Thune reasoned it would be better for Republicans to find consensus language than essentially hand the floor over to Democrats.
Rough road ahead. According to interviews with several GOP senators and senior aides, Republicans won’t accept “assurances” from administration officials over how the fund will be governed. They want binding legislative language instead.
There were several ideas mentioned during the meeting with Blache on Thursday, ranging from modest changes to nixing the fund entirely. The most popular one involves imposing eligibility requirements for the fund, namely preventing payouts to individuals convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 riot.
Another suggestion was to insert language to ensure the commissioners overseeing the fund are independent. As currently constructed, four of the commissioners are appointed by Blanche, while a fifth would be appointed in consultation with GOP congressional leaders. There was discussion of allowing Congress to oversee the appointments.
But many Senate Republicans won’t be satisfied unless the fund is dropped entirely. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) told us that these proposed restrictions would be “not enough” for him.
This gets at the heart of the challenge for Thune, who’s desperate to deliver the immigration enforcement funding and focus on something that unifies the GOP.
Complicating matters further, some Republicans are concerned that even voting for restrictions on the fund would be seen as voting to authorize it. Remember: The Trump fund isn’t mentioned anywhere in the reconciliation package. It was set up only a few days before the Senate was set to pass the measure, in response to Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns.
Because the fund falls under the jurisdiction of the committees specified in the reconciliation bill, Democrats can force votes on it at a simple-majority threshold.
In the House, some of Trump’s closest Republican allies are defending the fund.
“The dollars are there because the IRS lost this case, and they settled it because they did victimize the commander-in-chief,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Instead of taking the money, [Trump] said, ‘Put it into a fund for other people.’ Now everybody’s losing their minds.”
Even if Thune is able to find consensus language to add to the bill on the front end, it’s unclear whether that would prevent a handful of vulnerable Republicans from voting for Democratic amendments anyway during the vote-a-rama.
Depending on how Republicans choose to address the issue, Senate Democrats are considering a bunch of amendments, including one to block the creation of the fund outright.
