Senate Republicans managed to stitch together a unified front to advance President Donald Trump’s roughly $70 billion immigration enforcement package, but divisions over the president’s agenda were laid bare after a marathon day of votes.
Passage of the budget reconciliation package geared toward funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the next three and a half years closes a long, drawn out chapter in the Senate that began during the longest shutdown in history.
It’s a point that Senate Republicans tried to return to throughout the day, reiterating that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats had forced their hands after refusing to fund immigration operations without a plethora of reforms.
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“Democrats would not agree to anything, and eventually they walked away altogether, presumably because they thought that it would serve them better to have an issue for November,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.
But the day, and preceding weeks, were dominated by a growing rift between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration that threatened to blow up the process altogether.
First, it was the inclusion of $1 billion in funding for security upgrades to Trump’s ballroom, which was later stripped out.
Then, it was the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) announcement that a nearly $2 billion “anti-weaponization” fund was being launched to allow people who felt targeted by the government to make a claim from the pot of taxpayer money.
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Several Senate Republicans worried that the money could be accessed by Jan. 6, 2021, rioters who were convicted of assaulting police.
Schumer and Democrats leaned into that open wound and spent much of the marathon, “vote-a-rama” vote series trying to spell a permanent end to the fund, despite acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowing that the administration would no longer pursue it.
“Do we believe that Donald Trump, who has lied to us day in and day out, do we believe that he will be able to resist getting his sticky fingers in the slush fund when it would benefit himself and his family? No way, no way,” Schumer said.
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Many of the amendments pushed by Democrats placed Republicans in tough bids for reelection, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Jon Husted, R-Ohio, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, into politically challenging positions.
Republicans tried to kill it, too, causing tensions on the Senate floor to rise.
“It’s not that tense,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. “I mean, I’ve seen worse. Nobody’s stabbed anybody yet.”
Still, the process nearly came to a grinding halt because of the fund at the start of the marathon vote series when Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and others wanted to ensure that GOP attempts to end the fund would get a vote, too.
“I just wanted to optimize the chances of success,” Cassidy said of the delay.
Ultimately, despite a dozen Republicans voting for Sen. Thom Tillis’, R-N.C., amendment, and several voting for Cassidy’s, all attempts to thwart future bids to revive the fund failed.
The ballroom also came back into the picture when six Republicans joined Senate Democrats to prevent construction on the colossal structure from going forward without congressional approval.
Then there was an attempt by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to attach the SAVE America Act to the reconciliation package, which met Republican resistance and ultimately failed, too.
The package now heads to the House, where Republicans are expected to pass it by next week.
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