Senate Republicans are counting on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to offer new assurances Tuesday that the Justice Department’s controversial “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is kaput, allowing them to revive their immigration enforcement bill this week.

Blanche is appearing before a House committee in the afternoon, hours after speaking privately with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who said he was expecting Blanche to put any remaining doubts about the fate of the fund to rest.

“I think his statements are going to be very definitive, very clear,” Thune told reporters after a closed-door lunch with fellow GOP senators. A DOJ statement Monday saying the department would “abide by” a temporary court decision halting payouts from the fund failed to assuage GOP skeptics.

Thune added that he hoped that Blanche would “create the certainty” that Republicans need to move forward with the party-line immigration enforcement bill, which was derailed late last month after the $1.8 billion fund was announced

However, he cautioned that he wasn’t “guaranteeing that happens yet.” And GOP Sens. Steve Daines of Montana and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin after the lunch both played down the chances that there would be a marathon voting session on the bill this week.

But Blanche’s 4 p.m. testimony before the House Appropriations Committee was discussed inside the lunch, according to two attendees granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door event, and some members left the room talking about what the acting AG might say.

“I would pay attention to the attorney general’s testimony before the House this afternoon,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said, while Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) noted that Blanche’s testimony will be “part of us figuring out where all of our members are.”

Before launching votes on the immigration bill, Republican leaders need to determine whether they have the votes to pass it. Several GOP senators have raised concerns about the fund, which could be used to pay prosecuted allies of President Donald Trump, and said they could vote on amendments to curtail it.

With Democrats firmly opposed, Thune can lose as many as three Republicans, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie on the filibuster-skirting bill.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters there are still issues that needed to be worked out with the fund.

“To provide restitution to somebody who assaulted a police officer and pled guilty to it — I mean, man, I’ve seen some crazy stuff before, but that’s right up there with crazy,” he said.

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report. 

Speaker Mike Johnson said he is deferring to President Donald Trump on his choice of housing official Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.

“The president has the right to make those confirmations or appointments, and the Senate, you know, has to weigh in as well,” Johnson said in an interview. “So, we’ll see what happens. It’s a very important position.”

Asked if he was concerned Pulte doesn’t have intelligence experience, Johnson shook his head no.

The Koch-aligned GOP super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action is putting $6.3 million into battleground Senate ads just a few weeks after warning the Republican Senate majority is “at risk.”

The ads — shared first with Blue Light News — are focused heavily on gas prices and affordability, something the group has warned Democrats will take advantage of in November if Republicans don’t present solutions for voters.

The ad buys show that the group is worried about defending Republicans in some very red states. They’re advertising in Montana, which has barely been on the radar for most campaign analysts, as well as Iowa and Ohio, states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024. The group is also running ads in Michigan, New Hampshire and North Carolina.

“Across these six states, voters are telling us the same thing at every door: they want to know who’s going to lower their grocery bill and bring down the cost of gas,” AFP Action Executive Director Nathan Nascimento said in a statement. “The candidates we’re supporting have real plans to do exactly that, and they stand in stark contrast to the progressive policies that have only made things worse. That’s the choice, and we’re going to make sure voters see it clearly.”

The PAC is spending the most in Michigan and Ohio, with $1.7 million in each. The other states have investments ranging from $500,000 to $800,000.

“Things are tough. Gas prices are too high and Ohio families are feeling it. But with Sherrod Brown back in the Senate, high prices would be the new normal,” a narrator says in one of the ads airing in Ohio.

The ad, notably, makes no reference to the war in Iran, which has driven up gas prices nationwide. But the ad shows how Republicans will work to blame the rising costs on Democrats in an effort to keep control in Washington.