Republicans Pass Bill Boosting Immigration Enforcement

House Republicans on Tuesday narrowly passed a party-line bill that provides $70 billion for immigration and border agencies, despite lingering concerns over not blocking President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.

“The bill we have in the House does not have any funding for a weaponization fund,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday. The bill, however, does not explicitly ban the fund’s creation as some lawmakers had hoped.

The spending legislation passed through the budget reconciliation process, which allowed it to move without the threat of a filibuster. House Republicans voted, 214-212, to send the bill to Trump, who is expected to sign it.

The House action comes after the immigration funding package was derailed in the Senate last month after the Justice Department announced a settlement between Trump and the IRS over a leak of his tax documents.

The proposed deal would have created an “anti-weaponization” fund that Trump could use to make direct payouts to victims of political weaponization, an idea that drew opposition from both parties and criticism that it was a “slush fund.” Republican senators raised concerns that the fund could be used to compensate Jan. 6 Capitol rioters.

Amid those worries, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week that the DOJ would not create the fund. With that promise Senate Republicans were able to beat back multiple floor amendments that would have limited or blocked the fund through the reconciliation package.

Trump himself has contradicted Blanche, saying on Meet the Press on Sunday that the “anti-weaponization” fund remains a “great idea” and he would be disappointed if it did not move ahead. His comments did not weaken support for the fund in the House.

But House moderates are still working to prevent such a fund. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) and Tom Suozzi (D-New York) are collecting signatures for a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill that would ban the “anti-weaponization” fund. If a majority of House lawmakers signed onto the petition, the chamber would have to vote on the proposal.

The reconciliation accord funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both of which were left out of a deal with Democrats in April to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

Senate Democrats have refused to fund ICE and other agencies without reforms from the administration. That stalemate left DHS closed for over two months earlier this year. The GOP circumvented that opposition by moving the funding through reconciliation, and those dollars will be enough to cover the agencies through the end of Trump’s term.

The final bill did not include public funding for the construction of Trump’s White House ballroom, after it initially proposed $1 billion for the project. The push to include federal funding for the ballroom was also met with bipartisan pushback, after Trump first said he planned to pay for the East Wing addition with private donations.