WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans voted early Thursday morning to approve a budget measure that would pave the way for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding without any Democratic support.
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The vote was 50-48 after a marathon session last night.
The budget has no force of law on its own, but it instructs committees to begin drafting a bill to authorize $70 billion in funds for ICE and Border Patrol while bypassing a filibuster.
It could also pave the way for House Republicans to pass the bipartisan bill approved by the Senate to fund the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, ending the record months-long shutdown. House GOP leaders said they wanted to see action on the budget before taking up the Senate-passed DHS bill.
Months of bipartisan negotiations to end the DHS shutdown have faltered as Republicans rebuffed demands from Democrats to put limits on immigration enforcement operations following the killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis by immigration enforcement agents.
As a result, Republicans now plan to use whats known as a “budget reconciliation” process to fund those immigration enforcement agencies without any of the policy changes demanded by Democrats, such as mandating body cameras and limiting raids in sensitive locations like schools and hospitals.
“We have a multi-step process ahead of us, but at the end Republicans will have helped ensure that America’s borders are secure and prevented Democrats from defunding these important agencies,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
Democrats accused the GOP of upending the appropriations process to protect “rogue” ICE agents and of failing to lower costs for average Americans.
“America, this is what the Republicans are fighting for: To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of the country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor.
The Senate “vote-a-rama” process featured unlimited amendments — the price of bypassing the 60-vote threshold. Democrats used it to buttonhole GOP senators into tough votes —and extracted some politically notable defections.
The first amendment, put to a vote by Schumer, sought to “create a point of order against reconciliation legislation that does not lower out-of-pocket health care costs.” Republicans voted it down and it failed 48-50, but it won the support of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
Both are politically vulnerable, facing some of the most competitive re-election bids of any Republicans this fall.
Another amendment by Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who is running for re-election in a divided state, would “create a point of order against reconciliation legislation that fails to address the practice of insurance companies stepping between patients and their doctors to delay or deny access to care.” It failed 49-49, but won the votes of Collins, Sullivan and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
Republicans will need to hold 50 of their 53 members to pass the bill that comes out of the process.
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