WASHINGTON — House Republicans barely passed a budget blueprint to unlock more than $70 billion in future funding for immigration enforcement late Wednesday in a vote that was held open for more than five hours due to intra-party disputes.
Representatives voted 215-211 to adopt the measure, which kicks off the process for funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) a record-breaking 74 days into the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.), a former Republican who ditched the party earlier this year, voted present.
Republicans are leveraging the cumbersome Senate reconciliation process to prevent Democrats from filibustering the border enforcement bill.
Democrats have agreed to fund the rest of DHS, whose funding lapsed Feb. 14.
A bill to do just that cleared the Senate more than a month ago, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced that the lower chamber plans on tweaking the language before bringing it up to a vote.
House lawmakers are set to break for their two-week recess on Thursday, leaving the question of fully funding DHS to linger into mid-May.
Republican efforts to pass the CBP and ICE funding blueprint were nearly derailed by bad feelings over components of a sweeping farm bill, which Congress is tasked with passing every five years and sets policies on agriculture, nutrition, rural development, and other topics.
A bipartisan provision permanently allowing year-round 15% ethanol fuel sales drew pushback from some lawmakers over fears that it would wreak havoc on smaller refiners. Most gasoline is 10% ethanol, which often derives from corn. Bringing that up to 15% was seen as a significant financial boost for farmers.
After bitter negotiations, lawmakers decided to separate out the 15% ethanol provision from the farm bill and take it up at a later date.
Earlier Wednesday, GOP leadership managed to force through an extension of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 spy powers after toiling for weeks on it. However, that measure faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
“I’m very much like a triage surgeon on an active battlefield right now,” Johnson joked during an event Wednesday evening in between votes.
Some Republicans had also grumbled over the budget resolution for ICE and CBP funding itself. Fiscal hawks wanted it paired with more spending cuts. Others wanted additional provisions tucked into the reconciliation package.
The blueprint unlocks $70 billion apiece for ICE and CBP, but key drafters of the measure believe the final reconciliation bill will only provide $70 billion to both ICE and CBP.
President Trump has given Congress a June 1 deadline to get the full reconciliation package done.
Meanwhile, the temporary emergency measures Trump has taken to keep parts of DHS funded without Congress are set to expire next month, according to Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
“My payroll through DHS is just over $1.6 billion every two weeks, so the money is going extremely fast and once that happens, there is no emergency funds after that,” Mullin told “Fox & Friends” last week.
“I’ve got one payroll left and there is no more emergency funds, so the president can’t do another executive order because there’s no more money there.”
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