Thune Passes 52-47 Customs And Border Protection Funding Bill
Senate Republicans passed customs and border protection funding in a roughly $70 billion reconciliation bill after more than 18 hours of voting on Thursday and Friday. The 52-47 vote came at 4:52 a.m. and sent the measure to the House, where Republicans canceled Friday votes and eyed passage next week.
John Thune and the vote count
John Thune, the Senate majority leader, navigated a series of politically fraught amendments before the chamber cleared the bill. Lisa Murkowski was the lone Republican to oppose final passage. The legislation funds immigration enforcement and does not impose any new restrictions on President Donald Trump.
The final margin showed how narrow the path was. Amendments that required 60 votes drew as many as 54 votes in favor, while measures needing only a majority stalled at 49 votes.
Bill Cassidy’s Jan. 6 proposal
Bill Cassidy pushed the most persistent Republican challenge, offering a measure to redirect the $1.8 billion settlement fund to law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That proposal drew 52 votes, short of the 60 needed. Cassidy later asked to change a mistaken “nay” vote to a “yea” after it was already clear the outcome would not change, and the Senate agreed unanimously, lifting support for a Democratic proposal from 52 senators to 53.
Cassidy told reporters midway through the votes, “I was hoping that we could both have money to protect the border, but still do that which I hope to achieve,” John Kennedy said ahead of the votes on Thursday, “We’ve sort of lost sight of our ultimate objective here,” and, “The objective is to get DHS funded, and we’ve had some — some unrelated issues that have been thrust into the process, and they’ve got to be dealt with.”
House Republican timing
The bill now goes to the House, where Republican leaders had already canceled Friday votes and were looking toward action next week. The Senate’s passage leaves the package in a separate chamber, with House action still required before the funding can move forward.
