Senate GOP leaders are working to quell Republican angst over the Trump administration’s proposed $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund that is threatening to trip up the party’s immigration enforcement bill as it inches toward final passage.
Several Republicans still want language inserted into the so-called reconciliation bill to prevent the fund’s creation as President Donald Trump and senior administration officials offer conflicting messages on whether the controversial Department of Justice reimbursement plan for alleged targets of Biden-era “lawfare” is dead.
But alterations to block the DOJ fund could jeopardize the GOP’s ability to pass the $70 billion bill along party lines as early as Thursday. With a 53-47 majority, Republicans can afford but three defections on the filibuster-skirting measure to fund federal immigration agencies through 2029.
“We had a lot of conversations with our members and understand what’s at stake and how critical it is that we defeat amendments that would be corrosive to the bill or undermine it in any way,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said.
Amendments from Republicans and Democrats are expected during a marathon voting session set to commence Thursday, known as vote-a-rama, an arduous part of the reconciliation process that allows either party to propose an unlimited number of amendments and can last more than a day.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have expressed support for amendments that would thwart the fund.
“You want to make sure something’s not just mostly dead,” said Cassidy, who recently lost his primary to Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA). “You want to make sure it’s really dead. And I think we can make it really dead.”
Tillis, who will offer an amendment of his own, is going a step further. The retiring centrist is vowing to oppose final passage unless the DOJ fund is blocked.
“I wouldn’t support a bill that doesn’t have that in there,” Tillis said.
Responding to the warning, Thune said he’ll “cross that bridge when we get there.” It was unclear whether others would also oppose the bill without blocking the fund.
In an attempt to diffuse GOP support for amendments, Republican leaders warn that approving one related to the fund would all but doom final passage along party lines. The change would not be germane to the underlying bill under strict reconciliation rules and raise the threshold from a simple majority to 60 votes. Leadership is optimistic they can thwart such amendments because they’ll be set at 60-vote thresholds.
Still, Democrats hope to make the amendment votes as politically painful as possible for Republicans by targeting the fund and other hot-button concerns, such as $220 million in security for Trump’s yet-to-be-built East Wing ballroom, which was scrapped from the bill. The office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Democrats’ plan is to “keep forcing Republicans to answer for their priorities: Trump’s corrupt slush fund, his rogue police force, and his endless corruption — while Democrats fight to lower costs for American families.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche sought to offer assurances that the DOJ was permanently nixing the fund that Democrats denounce as a “slush fund” to benefit Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol. But his responses during testimony to a House committee this week were insufficient for several Republicans.
Trump himself has also made matters more complicated for GOP leaders by saying he was unsure whether the fund, currently on hold by a federal judge pending an ongoing legal challenge, would be scrapped for good.
“I’d have to ask the lawyers,” Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office. “I don’t know.”
A top DOJ official, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, deleted a social media post Wednesday suggesting the administration was exploring an alternative way to provide compensation to those it believes were victims of unfair Biden-era criminal prosecutions.
“The only thing that gives it finality is what we can do in” reconciliation, Tillis said.
SENATE REPUBLICANS MAKE IT OFFICIAL AND CUT TRUMP BALLROOM FUNDING
Over in the Republican-controlled House, where GOP leadership is operating on an even narrower margin, some members also desire preventing the fund’s creation.
“I’m not going to give anybody accolades for pulling back something that never should have been advanced to begin with,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, told the Washington Examiner. He cited existing legal loopholes that the current or future administrations could use to “exploit this situation.”
Hailey Bullis and David Sivak contributed to this report.