The Senate is eyeing a vote next week to start the process of fast-tracking a partisan spending bill to fund immigration enforcement operations for the next three years, according to top GOP leaders.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the upper chamber will push for a vote next week on a budget framework instructing committees how to draft the reconciliation bill, which would be considered in a final vote at a later date. Both votes will require only a simple majority to pass, allowing Republicans to bypass Democratic opposition.
“We’re going to move quickly, decisively and hopefully in a very focused way on ensuring that those important law enforcement agencies — contrary to the Democrats who want to defund law enforcement efforts — are funded, not only today, but well into the future,” Thune said on Tuesday.
The reconciliation bill will be narrowly focused, according to Thune, and only fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Patrol through the rest of President Donald Trump’s term. Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will lead efforts drafting the budget resolution, which could be released as early as this week.
The resolution is expected to include instructions for the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters last week. Both Barrasso and Graham met with Trump in the White House last week to discuss the reconciliation plan.
By keeping the budget instructions to just two committees, it narrows the scope of the bill — and limits the ways Democrats can delay passage. Reconciliation packages are subject to unlimited amendments, referred to as a vote-a-rama in the Senate, that can drag on for hours.
Once the budget framework is passed in the Senate, it must go to the House for approval. But some conservatives in the House want to expand the reconciliation package to include funding for the entire Department of Homeland Security for the next three years.
House skeptical Senate will get bill through quickly
That sentiment comes as some House Republicans express skepticism that the Senate will complete the reconciliation package in a timely manner — suggesting they place funding for the entire department under the package to increase its chances of passing.
“We cannot leave ICE and CBP hanging with nothing but hopes and prayers that reconciliation 2.0 comes together,” the conservative House Freedom Caucus said in a joint statement. “We can fund DHS for the rest of the President’s term to ensure Democrats can never again take our nation’s security hostage. We will never hand Democrats their ultimate prize: A defunded ICE, handcuffed CBP, and criminal aliens terrorizing our communities.”
House Republicans have also pressured GOP leadership to hold off on voting on the Senate-passed deal to reopen DHS for the remainder of this fiscal year until a reconciliation package is approved — raising questions about how long the current shutdown will last.
It’s unclear when the House will bring up the Senate deal, which funds all of DHS expect ICE and CBP through September. The bill is not currently listed on this week’s voting schedule, according to a copy obtained by the Deseret News.
Some conservatives have closed the door to voting on the Senate-passed deal altogether, arguing whatever is put on the floor must include full DHS funding.
“I am not for signing any piece of legislation that pieces (apart) the Department of Homeland Security,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., told reporters on Tuesday. “Either we pass it all or we put it all in a reconciliation bill with with some other victories as well. It can be skinny, but we are going to have some demands in that reconciliation.”
However, that has gotten pushback from GOP leaders in the Senate and others who think that could complicate the timeline for passage. Trump has called on Congress to pass the reconciliation package and get it to his desk by June 1.