By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republicans voted on Thursday to advance a $70 billion plan to fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agencies for the next three years, ignoring demands from Democrats for guardrails on immigration enforcement agents and their operations.
Lawmakers voted 50-48 in the predawn hours to adopt the non-binding budget resolution and send it to the U.S. House of Representatives, taking a crucial step forward in their effort to end a partial shutdown that has gripped the Department of Homeland Security since mid-February.
Two Republicans – Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski – opposed the measure.
If adopted by the House, the resolution will allow congressional committees to begin filling in the details on how the $70 billion would be spent in separate legislation that President Donald Trump would have to sign into law. The new funding would be expected to run through Trump’s presidency, which ends in January 2029.
With Democrats adamantly opposed to the funding initiative, Republicans plan to employ a rarely used procedure known as budget reconciliation in the separate legislation, which allows some budget-related bills to bypass Democratic opposition in the Senate.
Such measures require only a simple majority for passage in the 100-member chamber, instead of the usual supermajority of 60 votes or more. Republicans hold a 53-47 seat majority.
Funding for most of DHS ran out more than nine weeks ago, as Democrats pressed Republicans and the White House to accept new constraints on ICE and Border Patrol, which operate under the direction of DHS.
After two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis, Democrats insisted that ICE and Border Patrol be subject to the same operational rules as police forces across the United States, including a requirement that judicial warrants be obtained before agents can enter private homes.
But weeks of negotiations ended in a stalemate.
The Senate has since passed legislation to fund DHS operations other than ICE and Border Patrol. But the measure has stalled in the House, where hardline Republicans have demanded funding for those two entities as well.
‘VOTE-A-RAMA’ LASTED NEARLY SIX HOURS
Last year, Republicans passed legislation providing around $130 billion in funding for these two agencies, separate from their annual appropriations and the $70 billion now being advanced in Congress.
The Senate action followed a nearly six-hour “vote-a-rama” session that began late on Wednesday, with votes on a series of proposed amendments.
Eight months before the November midterm elections, which will determine which party controls Congress in the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency, Democrats sought to use the session to portray Republicans as out of step with American families and the challenges they face from soaring gasoline prices and healthcare costs.
Republicans accused Democrats of wanting to “defund” crucial immigration and border security operations.
Democrats offered a dozen amendments intended to lower out-of-pocket healthcare costs, restore food assistance for lower-income Americans, prevent the cancellation of health insurance coverage, increase funding for school meals and childcare, protect consumers from rising prices driven by tariffs and the war in Iran, and lower electricity costs for working people.
All failed but drew support from some Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who face challenging re-election bids in November.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that more than half of Americans are less likely to support candidates who back Trump’s approach to deporting immigrants, while a similar majority say their household finances have taken a hit from soaring gasoline prices.
Healthcare tops the list of household costs that voters think Congress should focus on most, polling data shows.
The Senate voted 98-0 to adopt a Republican amendment from Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham that would establish a deficit-neutral fund supporting ICE operations to apprehend, detain and expedite the deportation of adults convicted of rape, murder or sexual abuse of a minor after entering the United States illegally.
Lawmakers rejected other Republican amendments calling for legislation to require proof of citizenship in voting and other election restrictions, a ban on Medicaid funding for transgender surgery on minors, and cuts in foreign aid, science and education programs to pay for the ICE and Border Patrol funding.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Michael Learmonth, Edmund Klamann and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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