The Senate is set to vote Thursday on a bill to fund federal immigration enforcement agencies for the next three years after a rare revolt by Republican senators last month delayed its passage.
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But first, senators are expected to face several votes on amendments seeking to block the Trump’s administration’s move to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim they were wrongfully prosecuted or investigated.
Republicans’ drive to pass the bill by a June 1 deadline was derailed by the administration’s unveiling of the fund. Many Senate Republicans rebelled, saying they feared it could be used to compensate people convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, tried to quell those concerns Tuesday in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, saying the administration had abandoned its plans to set up the fund. But Trump himself has not said the fund is dead, telling reporters on Wednesday that he was unsure of its fate.
Thursday’s vote will test how concerned Republicans remain about the fund, which some of them have argued is politically toxic less than five months before the midterm elections.
“Republicans should do the stump speech test on this issue, particularly the ones who are in cycle,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) told reporters. “‘I stand solidly behind an administration that wants to potentially provide compensation to people who assaulted Capitol police officers. I stand fully behind that.’ Test that on the stump and see how it works out for you in November.”
Tillis said he would file an amendment to the funding bill to prohibit the administration from creating such a fund. Democrats have pledged to force votes on similar amendments during Thursday’s “vote-a-rama,” during which the Senate is expected to spend hours voting on amendments from senators in both parties.
The administration agreed to create the fund as part of a settlement to resolve a $10 billion lawsuit that Trump filed against the Internal Revenue Service over the 2019 leak of his tax records. The settlement also barred the Justice Department from prosecuting any potential tax crimes that Trump, his family or his companies committed before the agreement.
Democrats plan to offer amendments on that part of the settlement — which Blanche has said will remain in force — as well as the fund.
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“You’re going to have to vote on ending the corrupt Trump slush fund once and for all,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said on the Senate floor. “You’re going to have to vote on deciding whether Trump will be able to evade any tax audits and will be allowed to cheat on his taxes.”
The bill would send nearly $70 billion to two federal agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The money would allow the agencies to operate through the end of Trump’s term in a controversial end run around the typical appropriations process.
The push to passage it is the culmination of a fight over government funding triggered by the killing of Alex Pretti by immigration enforcement agents in January during protests against the administration’s deportation operations in Minneapolis. Democrats refused to vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security — which includes ICE and CBP — unless Republicans agreed to impose new restrictions on federal agents.
The administration negotiated with Democrats for weeks but the two sides failed to reach a deal. Democrats ultimately agreed to fund the department except for ICE and Border Patrol, leaving Republicans to fund those agencies without their votes.
Republicans are using a special budget process known as reconciliation to pass the bill with a simple majority, evading a Democratic filibuster. Democrats have argued that the maneuver undermines the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to advance most legislation.
Republicans control the Senate 53-47, meaning they can lose only three votes on the bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said Wednesday that he believed Blanche’s testimony had reassured Republicans enough to pass the bill.
“We had a pretty firm commitment” on Tuesday from Blanche, Thune told reporters. “He said it under oath in front of a public hearing, so my expectation is that he would adhere to that.”
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