The Senate left town on Thursday without beginning votes on legislation that the GOP plans to push through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to fund ICE enforcement and removal operations.
And it was all thanks to Republicans arguing amongst themselves over the president’s plans for a White House ballroom and a more than $1.7b “slush fund” for Trump’s allies.
Senators who spoke to The Independent coming out of a GOP luncheon on Thursday confirmed that plans for a “vote-a-rama” session were being postponed until after the Memorial Day holiday, and lawmakers quickly began filing out of the Capital after the news.
Even a last-minute visit from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to drum up support among the Senate Republican caucus appeared to net few results. Sen. Lisa Murkowski departed the meeting and told reporters that skepticism to the “slush fund” remained high as lawmakers in the lower chamber unveiled a bipartisan amendment aimed at killing the fund that they plan to tack on to the reconciliation bill.
Sen. Thom Tillis lambasted the fund on Wednesday, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated his own lukewarm feelings — indicating that the White House may be fighting a losing battle.
Many lawmakers complained openly about the lack of concrete guardrails around the fund, which was unveiled by Blanche at the Department of Justice as a means of compensating people “unfairly” targeted for prosecution by the Biden Justice Department. The fund would use taxpayer money, and critics say it could be used to benefit the scores of now-pardoned January 6 rioters around the country.
“Imagine that a fund that is set up to compensate people who assaulted Capitol police officers and other responding agencies, right” Tillis said the day before the meeting with Blanche. “People that had pled guilty to physical acts against the president may actually be able to get compensated. How absurd does that sound coming out of my mouth?”
Minutes after the news broke of the Senate’s plans to punt the issue, the House cancelled its own plans to hold votes on Friday, effectively signaling that the matter was concluded for the week.
Further complicating the issue for the White House is the administration’s ask for funding to begin the construction of Trump’s planned White House ballroom, which despite the president’s repeated promises that the project is self-funded comes with a $1B price tag for Congress. Republicans are still debating a path forward on that aspect of the reconcilation bill after the Senate parliamentarian — who so often vexed the Biden White House — stripped the language from the draft legislation altogether.
This is a breaking news report. More to follow…
