Senate Republicans pushed a budget reconciliation bill to the floor on Wednesday that would provide $72 billion in funding for immigration enforcement agencies through 2029, bypassing the usual 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster.
The Senate Budget Committee voted 11-10 along party lines to report out portions of the bill approved a day earlier by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The package includes $30.73 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $22.57 billion for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to hire, train, pay, and equip personnel.
These agencies were carved out of a larger DHS appropriations bill earlier this year after Democrats blocked funding that did not include stricter limits on immigration enforcement operations. Republicans are now using reconciliation, a special process that allows passage with a simple majority, to circumvent Democratic opposition.
“I’m an appropriator, I very much like regular order, but unfortunately, when it comes to ICE and the Border Patrol, we were not able to achieve an outcome in the appropriations process, so reconciliation’s available to us,” Budget Committee Chair Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said.
Republican lawmakers have been reworking the bill after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled last week that several provisions violated the Byrd rule, which bars extraneous items from fast-tracked reconciliation bills. Among those struck was a $1 billion allocation for the U.S. Secret Service tied to security upgrades for President Trump’s planned ballroom at the White House complex. That provision has drawn skepticism from both parties, as the parliamentarian previously blocked the Trump ballroom funding.
Graham and other Senate Republicans had floated taxpayer funding for the ballroom after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month, arguing it is a security necessity. Democrats have broadly criticized the idea as out of touch, vowing to challenge any rewrite that includes the clause.
During the Budget Committee meeting, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) pressed Graham: “Is it solely your intention to seek to add the ballroom piece when we get to the Senate floor?” Graham replied, “We’ll see how that all plays out.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters he hopes to post the bill text by midday Wednesday, with the “vote-a-rama” series of amendment votes possibly beginning Wednesday evening. He cautioned that starting the marathon depends on both parties yielding back debate time. “Part of it would depend once text is up and we get on the bill on how much time gets yield back, and I suspect our side would be happy to yield back a lot of time,” Thune said. “The question is how much time the Democrats want to use and obviously how many amendment votes they want to trigger.” He added, “My assumption is that we wouldn’t get started voting until much later in the day today.”
This move comes as House GOP leaders prepare to brief the press on the approaching reconciliation deadline, with broader implications for the party’s budget strategy. The bill’s advancement also highlights ongoing tensions over immigration enforcement funding, a key issue for the Trump administration.
