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Senate Passes ICE, Border Patrol Plan 04/23 06:08
The Senate took the first steps in a new effort to reopen the Department of
Homeland Security early Thursday, voting to adopt a budget plan that would fund
ICE and Border Patrol over Democratic objections and sending it to the House.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate took the first steps in a new effort to reopen
the Department of Homeland Security early Thursday, voting to adopt a budget
plan that would fund ICE and Border Patrol over Democratic objections and
sending it to the House.
The entire department has been shut down since mid-February as Democrats
have demanded policy changes in the wake of fatal shootings of two protesters
by federal agents. Republicans are now trying to fund the two immigration
enforcement agencies through the complicated, time-consuming process called
budget reconciliation, a maneuver that they also used to pass President Donald
Trump's package of tax and spending cuts last year with no Democratic votes.
"We have a multistep 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.
The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing
filibuster rules that require Republicans to find 60 votes on most bills when
they only hold 53 seats. But it also comes with increased scrutiny from the
Senate parliamentarian and a long, open-ended series of amendment votes at the
beginning and the end of the process.
The Senate held the first series of votes through the night, starting
Wednesday evening and into early Thursday morning, with Democrats proposing
amendments to lower health care expenses and other costs in an effort to
contrast with Republicans' focus on Trump's campaign of immigration enforcement.
"Instead of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into ICE and Border
Patrol, Republicans should be working with Democrats to lower out-of-pocket
costs," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The Senate adopted the final resolution 50-48, just past 3:30 a.m.
A lengthy effort to reopen Homeland Security
Once the House approves the framework and the Senate Parliamentarian
approves it, the two chambers can then move to pass the measure.
The Senate has already voted on a bipartisan basis to reopen the rest of the
department, but Republican leaders in the House say they won't take that bill
up until the Senate shows progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol, as
well.
The $70 billion budget resolution would fund the two agencies for three
years, through the rest of Trump's term. Thune and other GOP leaders say they
hope to keep the bill narrowly focused on ICE and Border Patrol and get it to
Trump's desk in the coming weeks, along with the rest of Homeland Security
Department funding that has already passed the Senate.
But that could prove difficult as many in the party see the budget bill as
the last real chance this year to enact their priorities. Republicans in both
the Senate and House have pushed to add other items, including money for
farmers and Trump's proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America
Act.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., briefly held up the vote series late Wednesday,
frustrated that the bill would not include parts of the SAVE America Act or
other legislation.
"This is the last train leaving the station," Kennedy said, predicting they
would not be able to pass any other major bills ahead of November's midterm
elections. But he withdrew his objections and allowed the voting to proceed.
Democrats say reform needed at ICE and Border Patrol after shootings
Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should
place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better
identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among
other asks.
After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in
January, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill
be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan
negotiations went nowhere, and the DHS funding lapsed with no agreement on
changes to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics.
In March, the Senate passed the legislation by voice vote that would
separate out ICE and Border Patrol and fund the rest of the department,
including the Transportation Security Administration as security lines grew
long at some airports. But Republicans in the House refused to consider it,
saying they wouldn't support any bill that didn't include money for immigration
enforcement.
Congress then left town for a two-week recess, leaving the issue unresolved.
Trump has used executive orders to pay some department salaries in the
meantime, but the future of those paychecks is uncertain.
Potential roadblocks in the House
During the recess, Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that they
would pursue a two-track approach -- pass the Senate bill that includes most of
the department's funding through regular order and use the party-line bill to
pass ICE and CBP funding.
Weeks later, though, Johnson has still not said when the House will take up
the Senate's legislation that would fund the rest of the department. And it is
unclear if members of his GOP conference will unite behind the narrowed budget
bill as some House Republicans have argued, like Sen. Kennedy, that they should
add other priorities to the legislation.
Johnson said this week that the sequencing of the two bills is important.
House lawmakers don't want to see the rest of the department funded without ICE
and Border Patrol, he said.
But Thune warned after the Senate vote that other parts of the Homeland
Security Department may run out of money before they are able to finish the
winding budget process and fund those two agencies. He said he hopes the
adoption of the budget resolution is a signal to the House that "we're going to
be following through."
"We'll see what they can do with it," Thune said. "And if they can't, I
guess we will go to the next plan."
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