WASHINGTON — Objections to the Trump administration’s controversial anti-weaponization fund prompted Senate Republican leaders on Thursday to punt a vote on a GOP package to fund ICE and Border Patrol until June, two GOP sources familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had aimed to get the reconciliation package through the Senate and onto the House before the Memorial Day holiday. But GOP senators emerged from a closed-door briefing with top Justice Department officials about the weaponization fund with more questions than answers, and it became clear that Republicans did not have consensus on moving forward.
Administration officials “need to help with this issue, because we have a lot of members who are concerned, obviously, about the timing, but also about the substance,” Thune told reporters after canceling votes.
Asked by NBC News how much the weaponization fund played into postponing the reconciliation vote, Thune replied: “Well, that’s a big issue.”
The Justice Department has said it plans to make $1.776 billion in taxpayer money available for the fund. Given Democratic opposition, the only method of passing that through Congress would be to add it to the immigration “reconciliation” package, which can pass with only Republican votes.
“I think the administration is putting itself in a bad spot,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said after the private briefing.
Thursday’s briefing with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and others lasted over an hour and a half, and Republicans emerged tight-lipped and appeared frustrated, saying they are working on how they could put guardrails on the anti-weaponization fund.
To ease GOP concerns, DOJ officials had circulated a one-page fact sheet about the weaponization fund, explaining where the money would come from, who would oversee disbursements, and who was eligible. DOJ said as part of Trump’s legal settlement with the agency, the president, his sons, and the Trump Organization would receive an apology but no monetary payment; they also cannot receive any payouts from the fund.
“This is about seeking accountability for all Americans who were victims of lawfare and weaponization: millions of Americans whose online speech was censored at the behest of the government, parents silenced at schoolboards, Senators whose records were secretly subpoenaed, churchgoers targeted by the FBI, and so on,” the fact sheet said.
“There is no partisan restriction: Democrats can submit claims, too,” according to DOJ.
The Republican-only reconciliation bill would provide about $70 billion in funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, two agencies that were left out of the bipartisan government funding package earlier this year amid Democratic demands to impose restraints on Trump’s aggressive enforcement tactics.
Another wrinkle in Republicans’ efforts to pass the bill: $1 billion in funding requested by President Donald Trump for security measures related to his White House ballroom. It faces significant Republican resistance.
House GOP leaders were waiting for the Senate to send over the funding package. But with the Senate heading for the exits, the House is now following suit and canceled votes on Friday. Congress plans to take off next week for the Memorial Day holiday and return to Washington the first week of June.
Trump has said he wanted Congress to send the ICE and border patrol funding package to his desk by June 1. But with lawmakers leaving town, it’s clear they will now blow past that deadline.
“It’s going to be important to execute on actually getting this thing done and across the finish line,” Thune said, noting that Congress still needs to renew a foreign spying program.
“It was something that was supposed to be very narrow, targeted, focused, clean, straightforward,” he said of the immigration funding package, “and it got a little bit more complicated this week.”
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