The Senate is rapidly pursuing a plan to inject funds into Department of Homeland Security immigration agencies that Democrats have denied funding.
Congressional leaders will have the potentially difficult task of uniting their slim majorities around the plan and settling disagreements on how ambitious it should be ahead of midterms that could strip Republicans of power.
On Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget, unveiled a framework for a party-line budget reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as Customs and Border Protection (CBP), for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.
“My goal remains simple — get a clean bill to President Trump’s desk that strengthens immigration enforcement and keeps our border secure,” Graham said in a statement.
Reconciliation is a legislative tool that can enact major budgetary changes with a simple majority in the Senate. The process requires that the House and Senate pass a mostly nonbinding budget resolution setting budgetary targets for relevant committees.
The rough draft budget will have to gain the approval of several Republicans who argue it does not go far enough in pursuing ambitious legislative goals.
The Senate Kicks Off
The Republican plan is to inject money into immigration enforcement via reconciliation, while funding the rest of DHS through the standard appropriations process, settling a funding battle that has gone on since Feb. 14.
“What’s coming next in reconciliation will supercharge ICE for years into the future,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told The Daily Signal in a statement.
“Republicans are prepared to fulfill the promises we made to the American people to meet mass migration with mass deportations, and there is nothing the Democrats can do to stop us,” Schmitt added.
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 52-46 on a motion to proceed to the resolution.
Under the law that governs the reconciliation process, this motion grants 50 hours of debate on the resolution. Once the time for debate expires, senators are able to propose as many amendments as they like to the resolution before the final vote.
These amendment sessions, known as a “vote-a-ramas,” are generally exercises in which the majority party tables the minority’s amendments.
A Big, Fat Bill?
However, some in the Senate have called for a fat, rather than skinny, reconciliation bill, and the vote-a-rama could provide an opportunity to push that expanded focus.
“I am of the mind that it makes sense to include as many conservative wins as possible into this reconciliation,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told The Daily Signal in a statement.
Lummis argued time is of the essence for Republicans to wield their congressional majorities.
“We don’t know what the future looks like, and ensuring that we use our reconciliation opportunities to get as much of the Trump agenda into law as possible seems to make sense. The American people gave us a mandate in 2024, and we need to capitalize on it,” Lummis added.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has called for the reconciliation bill to include a decade of boosted ICE and CBP funding, insert provisions shielding agencies from future shutdowns, and adjust the capital gains tax.
However, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., explained to The Daily Signal that he’s not calling for expanding the scope of the reconciliation bill, since he believes it would complicate funding DHS.
“We need to rapidly … pass a reconciliation focused on CBP and ICE funding. Any additions to that are going to complicate this process and slow it down,” Johnson said.
He disagreed with the argument that Republicans may not have another chance to enact aggressive budgetary legislation.
“Anyone who thinks we can take this [bill] and make it bigger, well, why would they dismiss that we can’t do another reconciliation bill?” Johnson asked. “I reject that notion that this is the only one we can do.
“No. If you guys have got good ideas… you got to sell them to the rest of the conference and be able to pass those with very slim majorities.”
The House Gauntlet
If the Senate passes the resolution, the House will have to approve an identical resolution in order for the reconciliation process to begin.
Since it is unlikely Democrats will support the resolution, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., will have the likely difficult task of uniting his razor-thin majority, which has flouted him on recent critical votes.
Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told The Daily Signal on Tuesday he is not sure House Republicans will rally behind a Senate-crafted resolution to fund DHS on a piecemeal basis.
“I’m not sure that they’re going to have the votes in the House to do that because a number of members of the House are demanding we fund all of DHS,” Self said.
The House has yet to pass a Senate-approved bill that would fund non-border DHS responsibilities, as hardline conservatives are demanding the Senate make progress on reconciliation first.
“I don’t see us voting for this unless we go have reconciliation done first,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told The Daily Signal of the DHS appropriations bill on Tuesday.
“If we can fund ICE and CBP in reconciliation, then I think you might see some people tolerate voting for [the appropriations bill],” Burlison added.
If the House amends a Senate-passed budget resolution, it would have to undergo another vote-a-rama upon returning to the upper chamber, and the final budget reconciliation bill will also have to undergo another Senate vote-a-rama.
