Senate Majority Leader John Thune defended on Wednesday a Department of Homeland Security funding framework as it comes under heavy criticism from Democrats and some conservatives.

“I think it’s going to be … still the best landing spot, but we haven’t heard anything back from the Dems yet,” Thune said when asked if the framework was still viable.

He added that the best way for the shutdown to end would be for Democrats to “take a deal” but added that he doubted they “have a clear idea about what they want to do or how they see us concluding.”

“But hopefully they want to see it conclude, because we do, too,” he added.

Thune said he spoke Tuesday night with President Donald Trump, who has yet to publicly endorse the framework. Asked if he thought the president supported it, Thune declined to comment.

Republicans offered this week to take funding for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations out of the DHS funding bill that was on offer in January. But Democrats have balked, saying enforcement policy changes would have to be included in a bill that even partially funds ICE.

The Senate is scheduled to begin a two-week recess later this week, but Thune said it was an “open question” whether that happens.

“If we haven’t figured out how to fund the government, then it seems like that really complicates us leaving here,” he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that his panel is moving “expeditiously” to unlock Senate Republicans’ ability to fund defense and homeland security priorities without Democrats’ help.

“The purpose of the second reconciliation bill is to make sure there is adequate funding to secure our homeland and to support our men and women in the military who are fighting so bravely,” Graham said in a statement. “More funding will mean they can complete the task assigned and keep America safe – which is money well spent.”

Graham added that a second reconciliation bill could also be used to “improve voter integrity,” a nod to Republicans’ plan to try to get parts of their election bill, known as the SAVE America Act, included to appease Trump.

The announcement came as some Republicans proposed this week using the budget reconciliation process, which allows a united majority to avoid the 60-vote filibuster threshold, to pass immigration enforcement funding Democrats oppose. It also comes as GOP leaders strategize over how to potentially pass a new slug of Pentagon funding as the war in Iran nears the one-month mark.

Graham’s comments Wednesday morning come after he met with Budget Committee Republicans Tuesday on what senators said afterward was a preliminary meeting to “touch gloves” about pursuing another reconciliation bill. Graham subsequently met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune to brief him on the closed-door discussion.

“Lindsey is moving down that path. And my expectation is if he does end up drafting a budget resolution it would be with a lot of input from members of the conference and something that I think we would be confident we could support on the floor,” Thune said.

The Senate needs to adopt a budget resolution before Senate Republicans can bring a filibuster-skirting policy bill to the floor. The budget resolution outlines which committees will have the drafting pen for the eventual bill and lays out broad fiscal targets the eventual bill will need to comply with.

Budget Committee Republicans discussed trying to get parts of the SAVE America Act, like incentivizing states to implement voter ID, and funding for ICE into a party line bill. Graham did not specify a timeline for when he will have a budget resolution ready.

Even as Graham is vowing to push forward, it’s still uncertain that congressional Republicans will actually be able to pass another reconciliation bill.

Lawmakers are introducing bipartisan legislation to prohibit members of Congress, the president and others in the executive branch from trading in certain prediction markets, according to bill text shared exclusively with POLITICO.

Reps. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.) and Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) will introduce the Preventing Real-time Exploitation and Deceptive Insider Congressional Trading Act, or PREDICT Act, Tuesday to ban members of Congress from participating in prediction markets related to political events or policy decisions. The ban would also extend to dependents and spouses of lawmakers, senior congressional staff, political appointees, the president, vice president and all senior executive branch employees, including special government employees.

“The American people are tired of politicians using their influence for personal gain, and the rise of prediction markets has made those concerns even more relevant,” Budzinski said in a statement. “In recent months, we’ve seen instances of little-known traders making massive profits on events ranging from war with Iran to how long a government shutdown will last, raising necessary questions about the use of inside information.”

The bill comes amid an uptick of bipartisan legislation focused on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi. Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced a bill in the Senate earlier this week to ban sports betting contracts on prediction markets.

Polymarket and Kalshi, the largest prediction market platforms, on Monday unveiled new measures intended to thwart insider trading on its platforms. Polymarket said it was updating its rulebook to clearly state that users cannot trade on events that they could influence or have confidential information on. Kalshi, meanwhile, launched a tool to prevent political candidates from trading on their own campaigns.

Last month, Kalshi banned a California politician who wagered $200 on his own gubernatorial bid.

“Serving the American people is a privilege, not a pathway to profit,” Smith said in a statement. “Our commonsense, bipartisan bill will give Americans confidence that the decisions of their elected officials are guided by merit, not personal profit.”

The legislative rush comes alongside a rapid expansion in the prediction markets that has attracted some of Wall Street’s and Silicon Valley’s biggest investors.

President Donald Trump’s family has jumped in, too. Donald Trump Jr. is an adviser to Kalshi and Polymarket and a partner in venture capital firm 1789 Capital, which is also an investor in Polymarket. The president’s social media startup, Trump Media & Technology Group, last fall announced plans to launch a prediction-market service called Truth Predict.

The legislation would implement a fine to violators of 10 percent of the value of violating transactions, plus force any profits from those transactions to go to the U.S. Treasury.

Declan Harty contributed to this report.