Senate Republicans advance Homeland Security funding package for immigration agencies

Senate Republicans narrowed their homeland security package on Wednesday, stripping out $1 billion in Secret Service security funding tied to President Trump’s East Wing ballroom project to keep a $72 billion immigration bill moving toward the floor. The revised text came after Republicans objected to the added security money, a sign that the reconciliation process is forcing lawmakers to pare the measure down to what can survive both Senate rules and internal GOP resistance.

The bill at the center of the fight was unveiled last month by the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees and would finance immigration agencies through fiscal 2029. It is designed to pour new money into the enforcement side of the Department of Homeland Security, especially Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, while sidestepping the normal 60-vote Senate threshold through reconciliation. The earlier House-Senate debate over a separate $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol plan underscored the same point: Republicans want immigration money that can pass on a party-line basis, even as Democrats demand restraints on enforcement.

The ballroom cut also reveals how quickly add-ons can become liabilities. What began as a package aimed at immigration agencies became entangled with a separate Secret Service funding request for the White House renovation, and that extra money drew enough scrutiny from a handful of Republicans that senators abandoned it rather than risk the larger bill. That kind of trimming is central to reconciliation, which lets Republicans push fiscal items without Democratic votes but leaves little room for provisions that look like political riders.

The immediate obstacle was not just the ballroom language. GOP senators also spent days pressing the administration for clarity on the Justice Department’s so-called anti-weaponization fund, a proposed pool for people who claimed the government had been weaponized against them. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House committee on Tuesday that the fund was not moving forward, easing some concerns, but not all. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said most members felt satisfied, while Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas remained skeptical as the chamber prepared to vote at 2:15 p.m. on the motion to proceed. For Republicans, the episode shows both the appeal and the limits of using reconciliation to lock in immigration priorities for the rest of Trump’s term.