The Senate voted early Thursday to adopt a $70 billion u.s. department of homeland security budget plan that would fund ICE and Border Patrol and sent it to the House after a 50-48 vote just past 3:30 a.m. The plan now moves into a fight over whether the rest of the department’s shutdown can end.
Thune, Schumer on the vote
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, "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". Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer countered during the vote series, "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".
The resolution would fund the two immigration enforcement agencies for three years, through the rest of Trump's term. Republicans are using budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate, to advance that funding while the department remains shut down since mid-February.
John Kennedy delays the series
Late Wednesday, Sen. John Kennedy briefly held up the vote series because he was frustrated that the bill would not include parts of the SAVE America Act or other legislation. He said, "This is the last train leavin". Republicans in both chambers have pushed to add money for farmers and Trump's proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America Act.
The Senate adopted the final resolution after Wednesday evening’s amendment votes, and then sent it to the House. House Republican leaders have said they will not take up the bipartisan bill to reopen the rest of the department until the Senate shows progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol, leaving the broader reopening fight tied to the two-agency plan.
House vote on the reopening bill
The broader Department of Homeland Security funding bill for the rest of the department has already passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis, but the House has not yet taken it up. Democrats have demanded policy changes after the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents, while the chamber now faces the House decision on whether to move both tracks at once or keep the department’s reopening stalled.
For agencies and workers tied to the shutdown, the immediate issue is whether the House accepts the Senate’s sequence or keeps the reopening bill parked until the ICE and Border Patrol money advances. The Senate’s 50-48 vote gives Republicans a path, but the House still controls whether that path turns into a reopened department.
