Senate Passes Immigration Enforcement Spending Bill Without Restriction on ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Funds

The Senate has passed a bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies for the remainder of President Trump’s term without any prohibition on creating a new “anti-weaponization” payout fund. Two Republican lawmakers — Senators Bill Cassidy and Thom Tillis — frantically worked on Thursday to try to bar the president from ever creating a new payout scheme. The nearly $70 billion bill to fund ICE, Border Patrol, and other agencies working on the president’s mass deportation agenda had been expected to pass relatively quickly a few weeks ago. Nearly every Republican was on board with getting the spending deal passed, though Mr. Trump ended up gumming up the process with two of his own priorities. First, his proposed White House ballroom, which is set to be built where the East Wing once stood. Lawmakers were not happy about handing $1 billion to the Secret Service — $220 million of which would be directly used for the ballroom — at a time when Americans are complaining about the cost of living. By Friday morning, the ballroom funds had been stripped from the bill, thanks to the Senate parliamentarian, who ruled that the provision did not comply with Senate rules and could not be included in the legislation. The second issue was Mr. Trump’s plan — as part of his settlement with the IRS — to set up a $1.776 “anti-weaponization fund” that could make payments to individuals who claim that they had been legally abused by the government. There were no restrictions on who would be eligible to make claims, raising concerns among dozens of Republican senators that violent criminals who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, would be compensated.Just before dawn on Friday, the Senate passed the bill by a margin of 52 to 47 with Senator Lisa Murkowski the only Republican to oppose it.In a sign of how politically poisonous the anti-weaponization fund had become, three vulnerable Republicans senators up for re-election this year — Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio, and Dan Sullivan of Alaska — all voted for a motion to send the funding bill back to the Judiciary Committee, which would have derailed the entire process. That measure was defeated by one vote thanks to Dr. Cassidy, who said he wanted to let the process play out while he works on crafting an amendment that would comply with Senate rules. A separate vote on ballroom funding attracted even more Republican support, though it failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed for approval. Senator Jerry Moran joined Senators Collins, Cassidy, Murkowski, Husted, Tillis, and Sullivan in voting for a Democratic amendment that would have barred the construction of the ballroom with either public or private money. Speaking to reporters at one o’clock in the morning just off the Senate floor, Ms. Murkowski — who was wrapped in a blanket — said the president’s actions have made Senate Republicans’ job harder. “I don’t think he thinks about the impact it has and the timing. Like, I just don’t think he thinks about it,” Ms. Murkowski said. “It really has had [an] impact.”She argued that, if past is prologue, Mr. Trump has made reauthorization of FISA Section 702 — America’s warrantless surveillance powers — much more difficult. As with his ballroom funding and the “anti-weaponization fund,” Ms. Murkowski said the selection of Bill Pulte to be the acting director of national intelligence complicates everything. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Ms. Murkowski told reporters. “That was driven by the announcement earlier this week — that Pulte was going to be the guy.”A procedural vote early Friday to advance the FISA extension failed on a vote of 47-52. Six Republican senators joined most Democrats to vote against advancing the extension.Senator Mike Lee said the measure failed because it did not require authorities to secure a warrant before spying on Americans. “Come back with warrant requirement, and we’ll pass the bill,” Mr. Lee said in an X post.

Senate Passes Immigration Enforcement Spending Bill Without Restriction on ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Funds

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