Senate Republicans want a clear-cut answer on whether the Trump administration’s now-stalled, nearly $2 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is dead before moving forward with a multibillion-dollar immigration enforcement package.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday announced that while the administration “disagrees strongly” with a Virginia federal court’s order against the fund, it would adhere to the decision. But many Republicans contend that it’s not enough to satisfy their concerns.
“I appreciate them saying that, but they don’t have a choice,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. “They have to abide by federal district court law. It doesn’t tell me whether they’re planning on appeal. It doesn’t tell me whether the administration’s backing off the idea — it doesn’t tell me anything, except they’re gonna follow the law.”
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And in the middle of the intra-party battle is President Donald Trump’s roughly $70 billion funding package for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.
“If your question is, is the weaponization fund impacting our ability to pass the reconciliation bill? The answer is yes,” Kennedy continued. “But right now, the reconciliation bill, and the process surrounding it, looks like a broken arm with a bone sticking out.”
Senate Republicans abruptly halted budget reconciliation, the party-line process they’re using to ram through the funding package, after an explosive meeting with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about the fund last month.
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Republicans’ general sentiment was that the problem was one for the administration and Trump to figure out, given that a slew of Democratic amendments related to the fund would likely pass and modify the package.
And what was meant to be a concession, or at least a glimmer of hope to restart the process, has not landed well with Republicans.
“The only thing that’s gonna solve this problem — to get immigration funded and law enforced — is for the president to do away with the weaponization fund,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that the DOJ’s announcement appeared to signal that the fund had been shut down, but that conversations among Republicans would decide the next steps on reconciliation.
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Still, he acknowledged that Republicans wanted more answers from the administration.
“Well, I think anything that they say on top of what the DOJ said is helpful, but, I mean, I think the statement they made effectively shuts it down,” Thune said.
Some Republicans aren’t totally against the idea of some form of compensation fund for people who claim they were wronged or targeted by the government, but contend that it’s how the fund is administered that matters.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., broadly supports compensation funds, like his Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that was signed into law last year, but said that the question was “how do you administer it?”
“My view on that is, you can work those details out in a way that rewards victims,” Hawley said. ”I mean, that’s the key thing.”
Others are ready to move on from the fight and feel that the DOJ’s announcement was enough to clear the decks of concerns among their colleagues.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said it’s a “moot point at this point.”
“I think it’s important for us to move forward with the ICE and CBP funding,” Schmitt said. “There’s just, we gotta get that done. Democrats have been obstructing that for too long, and so, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a moot point.”
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