House passes bill paving the way for $70 billion in ICE funding
The House passed a bill that would pave the way for $70 billion in additional funding for immigration enforcement.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Friday voted early for Republicans to approve President Donald Trump’s request for $70 billion in additional funding for immigration enforcement, bypassing Democratic opposition.
Voting continued in the Senate, and once completed, the bill will be sent to the House for final approval. The House is not scheduled to consider the bill until next week, Republican leaders said.
Much of Thursday’s lengthy debate over the bill was overshadowed by efforts by Democrats and some Republicans to insert language unrelated to immigration. Those proposals revolved around banning the use of federal funds, and even private donations, to build a lavish 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the White House grounds that President Trump wants.
Senators also debated a provision that would make it illegal to use federal funds for “anti-weaponization” funds that compensate President Trump’s political allies for alleged government mistreatment.
None of these amendments were approved.
The money provided by the bill would help pay for President Trump’s controversial immigration deportation crackdown over the next three years and shore up about $100 billion in unused law enforcement funding for the Department of Homeland Security that Republicans who control Congress enacted last year.
Trump says fund is ‘very important’
Lawmakers began voting on amendments to the immigration bill in a “Vote-a-Rama” session early Thursday morning, culminating in a vote on the underlying bill early Friday.
The first move by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to eliminate the “anti-weaponization” fund, which Democrats called a “slush fund” for Trump’s allies, caused Congress to halt for several hours, mostly on procedure, after Republican Sen. Susan Collins voted in favor of the motion.
She was later joined by Republicans Jon Husted and Dan Sullivan.
“This is atrocious, and it will not go away until we permanently ban it by law,” Schumer said of the $1.776 billion fund in a speech before the full Senate.
His bill failed on a 50-49 vote, exposing the political turmoil among rank-and-file Senate Republicans. Some of them called for their own amendment to permanently eliminate the fund five months before the November midterm elections. Collins, Husted and Sullivan all face fierce campaigns for re-election as President Trump’s approval ratings decline even among Republicans.
Critics say the fund allows Trump to use tax dollars to compensate political allies, but the White House and Justice Department have already put a hold on it.
But on Wednesday, Trump declined to say whether the fund had actually ended, telling reporters, “I love this fund. I think it’s very important.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who opposed Schumer’s motion, told reporters he would not support passage of the funding bill unless Republicans vote on an amendment to codify Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s testimony to Congress that the administration is abandoning the fund.
Tillis argued that failing to do so would burden Republican lawmakers up for re-election in November who are concerned about voter backlash against the fund.
Opponents call fund ‘imminent and serious threat’
Almost all of the bill’s funding would go to DHS’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Protection agencies, where the Trump administration has been aggressively deporting people across the country.
Mr. Tillis later proposed his own amendment that would reallocate Trump Fund funds to fraud enforcement efforts. Although it had the support of 12 Republican senators, it was rejected by a vote of 84-15.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who proposed his own amendment to eliminate the fund, along with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, also asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in a friend-of-the-court brief to uphold the injunction on Mr. Trump’s fund that he imposed last week.
They argued that the fund “poses an imminent and dire threat to our nation’s constitutional order and the authority of Congress.”
A number of President Trump’s recent actions, from his request for $1 billion in taxpayer funds to upgrade the White House banquet hall and security, to his decision to nominate Blanche as attorney general and political ally Bill Peult as director of intelligence, have drawn open criticism from some Republicans.
Mr. Cassidy, who lost last month’s Louisiana primary to two challengers aligned with Mr. Trump, has proposed a series of amendments, including one that would invalidate Mr. Trump’s agreement with the Internal Revenue Service that protects him from tax audits.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Richard Cowan; Editing by Deepa Babington, Michael Learmonth, Cynthia Osterman, William Mallard and Alex Richardson)
