Senate Republicans voted early April 23 to advance a roughly $70 billion budget plan to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, marking a procedural step toward ending a monthslong partial shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Senate approved the budget resolution in a 50-48 vote shortly after 3:30 a.m. ET following an overnight “vote-a-rama,” during which Republicans rejected several Democratic attempts to increase spending on health care, childcare, and energy.
Two Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — joined Democrats in opposing the measure. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Mark Warner, D-Va., did not vote.
The measure still needs to clear the House. If passed, it would unlock funding for ICE and Border Patrol over the next three years. While the resolution does not have the force of law, its adoption would allow lawmakers to begin drafting detailed spending legislation through the budget reconciliation process, according to NBC News. The process enables Republicans to bypass a Senate filibuster and pass the package with a simple majority.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters after the vote that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., hasn’t guaranteed the House will adopt the budget resolution but added that “hopefully the White House will be engaged in trying to make sure” it’s passed.
“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,” Thune said on the Senate floor, according to The Hill.
Democrats have sharply criticized the approach, arguing it sidesteps negotiations and excludes policy changes they say are needed to increase oversight of immigration enforcement.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor, “America, this is what the Republicans are fighting for: To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of the country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs.”
The vote marks a step toward ending the partial DHS shutdown, which has persisted since Feb. 14 after Democrats called for policy changes to increase immigration enforcement oversight in the wake of two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January. The Senate voted last month to reopen the rest of DHS, but Johnson said he would not bring the bill to the floor until ICE and Border Patrol were fully funded.