Republicans abruptly dropped plans to vote on an immigration spending package this month after many senators expressed grave concerns about President Donald Trump’s proposed “anti-weaponization” fund.
The Senate is now set to leave for a weeklong recess without moving ahead on the legislation, which it had hoped to send to the House by the end of the week. Senate GOP leaders now expect to try again when the chamber returns in June.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Thursday that leadership plans to “pick up where we left off” after the recess. He said the White House needs to do more to build support for the package.
Speaker Mike Johnson was expected to go to the White House to meet with Trump about the reconciliation bill, but that, too, was called off. The House will also leave Thursday for Memorial Day recess.
Trending
Republicans were on track to pass the party-line spending package this week until the Department of Justice announced a settlement with the IRS that included the $1.8 billion fund.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met for several hours on Thursday with GOP senators on Capitol Hill and failed to assuage concerns that Trump could use the fund to direct payments to allies who believe they were wrongly targeted by the government. Critics, including some Republicans, have blasted it as a “slush fund” and worry it could be used to pay Jan. 6 Capitol rioters who Trump pardoned.
“They have fucked this up on too many levels to count,” one senior Senate aide said of the administration. “The only thing more toxic than demanding taxpayers foot the bill for a billion dollar ballroom is demanding taxpayers give billions of dollars to J6 rioters.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the White House derailed its own agenda — immigration enforcement — by forcing Senate Republicans to defend the settlement fund.
“The White House dropped a bomb in the middle of a pretty well planned out reconciliation bill to help deliver on one of President Trump’s priorities,” the Alaska Republican told NOTUS.
She added that “no one held back” in pushing back against the fund in their meeting with Blanche.
Sen. Susan Collins said she remained opposed to the fund, and Sen. John Curtis also said he wasn’t swayed by Blanche’s arguments.
Sen. Thom Tillis, another opponent, said that the bill’s fate is “up to the White House.”
Sen. Roger Marshall told reporters that he “absolutely” still has concerns about the fund following the GOP lunch.
Under budget reconciliation rules, the immigration spending package can move without the threat of a filibuster and by simple majority. Republicans can only afford to lose three votes with all Democrats opposed.
Senators said the timeline for voting on the bill is still unclear. Sen. James Lankford told reporters that timing is “a great question.”
Sen. John Hoeven said that there is still a consensus that senators need to pass a reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies. But he said there are still a number of outstanding issues that Republicans will have to solve before they can get to 50 votes.
“Obviously, the security is an issue, the various funds are issues,” Hoeven said. “There’s a number of them that we still have to resolve to make sure we have 50 votes, and then try to anticipate any and all amendments that come up, and that’s a consensus building process that’s going to require more work.”
The delay followed a week of mounting frustration between Senate Republicans and the White House after Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over sitting Sen. John Cornyn to be the Republican nominee for Senate.
Authors
