The Senate passed a $70 billion bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through 2028. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
The Senate passed a bill early Friday to fund immigration enforcement through the end of President Donald Trump’s term with no guardrails to block his $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
Republicans pushed the $70 billion legislation through with a 52-47 vote. It will fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, which Democrats have been trying to avoid funding after the shooting deaths of American citizens in Minneapolis, Minn., earlier this year.
The bill allocates $38.6 billion to fund ICE, $22.6 billion for Border Patrol, $5 billion to the Department of Homeland Security and $108.5 million for child exploitation investigations.
The only Republican to vote against it was Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. All Democrats voted against it, and only Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., missed the vote.
Murkowski said she wasn’t against the bill but didn’t approve of the reconciliation process, which allows the lawmakers to push legislation regarding funding through with a simple majority instead of needing a 60-vote threshold to bypass filibusters.
“I believe very strongly that we needed to fund ICE and CBP, but to completely bypass regular order and the appropriations process by funding for three-and-a-half years, to me … it takes it out of the process that we have always looked to for funding our agencies,” Murkowski said.
She added that she was not in favor of the “anti-weaponization” fund.
The fund was created by Trump after a $1.8 billion settlement with the IRS for leaking his tax returns. The people expected to use the fund are those who were convicted for their parts in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol.
Eight Republicans voted for an amendment to ban payments to fund Jan. 6 rioters convicted of assault on police, but it failed.
Senate Republican Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers that the administration won’t continue with the fund, which is why the Senate didn’t add the amendment.
“I think what, what was talked about, and then ultimately done away with, is, in my view, it’s a settled issue,” Thune said.
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump announces the completion of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool from the Oval Office at the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Shawn Thew/UPI | License Photo
