The Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that major pieces of the GOP’s party-line immigration enforcement package do not comply with the chamber’s rules — a setback to Republicans racing to clear the bill this month.

The parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, found that four parts of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s portion of the legislation will need to be reworked — or risk Democrats forcing a floor vote on each provision that would be subject to a 60-vote threshold, according to a statement from Budget Committee Democrats Thursday night.

Republicans are now expected to try to rewrite the provisions to meet MacDonough’s approval, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private strategy. They will need to work quickly if they are going to meet the June 1 deadline President Donald Trump has set for clearing the legislation, recognizing that the House will need time to pass the package as well.

Democrats immediately declared victory.

“This fight is just getting started,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, adding that Democrats will force Republicans “over and over to defend their real priority: Trump’s palace over your paycheck.”

But Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Majority Leader John Thune, said the ruling simply will require “technical fixes that were not unexpected.”

“We look forward to continued productive work” with the parliamentarian, he added, “to fully fund Border Patrol and immigration enforcement.”

Though senators could technically overrule MacDonough, they generally defer to her interpretations of the restrictions governing what is permissible in a filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation bill.

MacDonough has ruled against a line in the bill that would fund the screening of people entering the United States, as well as $19.1 billion for parts of Customs and Border Protection. According to Democrats, she found those pieces of the legislation violate the strict rules of the reconciliation process because they would impact policy beyond the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — one of the two panels Republicans directed in the budget framework they adopted last month that unlocked the ability to advance the legislation in the Senate by a simple majority.

That could be an easier fix for Republicans, since the Judiciary Committee, the second of the two committees, also has jurisdiction over DHS. But the parliamentarian also took issue with a section that includes $2.5 billion Republicans are trying to enact to bolster the funds they enacted last summer through their party-line tax and spending megabill, as well as language that would allow funding to be used for initial screenings of unaccompanied immigrant children.

MacDonough is expected to make her rulings on provisions contained in the Judiciary Committee’s portion of the immigration enforcement package as soon as Friday. Lawmakers are awaiting a verdict on whether they can use reconciliation to fund security infrastructure involved in Trump’s ballroom project.

A senior House Democrat with close ties to top leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsed carving up majority-minority districts to ensure Democratic redistricting gains ahead of the 2028 elections.

“I’m supportive of winning and being in the majority,” Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) said in a Thursday interview. “I think we can do that. I’m supportive of preserving our Democrats in the South, which is important, and I think that we can win and do what we need to do in other districts.”

“Trump changed the rules,” he continued. “I don’t like those rules, but we’re going to do what we have to do to win.”

Asked specifically if he would be supportive of unseating Republicans by redrawing deep-blue New York City districts held by minority lawmakers, like his own, to extend instead into less diverse suburban areas, he said, “I’m going to win, but we’ve got to get more Democrats, also.”

“We’re going to have a level playing field,” added Meeks, the longtime leader of the Queens Democratic Party.

In response to a Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that allows GOP-controlled state governments to undo lines drawn to protect minority voting interests, Jeffries said this week he considers New York a prime target to counter those Republican gains in 2028. The top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), met with Gov. Kathy Hochul last week to talk about mid-decade redistricting but said in an interview Thursday they did not discuss the specifics of a new map.

As a senior Jeffries ally and a key member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Meeks will have considerable influence over New York redrawing its map.

“Nobody wants us to sit back and do nothing and just let them stamp all over us,” Meeks said.

His perspective aligns with many Democratic voters. New Blue Light News polling revealed Thursday that many Democrats want party leaders to fight back on Republican gerrymandering, including by breaking up majority-minority districts.

Meeks said redrawing district lines would not undermine his party’s commitment to diversity.

“We’re going to preserve those responsibilities that we have,” he added. “And we’re going to create more seats for Democrats to win.”

The House Ethics Committee officially announced it is investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against Rep. Chuck Edwards.

The leaders of the bipartisan panel said Thursday they were probing whether the North Carolina Republican “created or fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment in violation of the Code of Official Conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct.”

Edwards, in a statement Thursday, said he “welcome[d] any investigation and plan[ned] to comply fully with the Committee.”

He added, “I am confident the investigation will expose the facts, not politically motivated fiction.”

POLITICO previously reportedthat Edwards was under investigation for allegations of having an improper relationship with staff and engaging in sexual harassment.

Speaker Mike Johnson this week said the allegations against Edwards are serious but that Edwards is also denying the accusations. The lawmaker has been seen on Capitol Hill this week attending floor votes and a candle light vigil in recognition of National Police Week.

In its current stage, the Edwards probe is less formal than an inquiry by an investigative subcommittee, which can only be convened by an Ethics Committee vote. Under committee rules, the panel must announce the formation of an investigative subcommittee, but investigations conducted at the discretion of leadership can operate in secret. That means leaders had no obligation to disclose their inquiry into Edwards at this time.

But the Ethics Committee is under new pressure to appear more responsive to allegations of misconduct among members, spurring an uptick in public statements and status reports about the panel’s typically secretive activities.

The renewed attention on sexual misconduct in the House specifically also compelled Republican and Democratic leadership to direct their party’s respective Women’s Caucuses to team up for a working group to develop changes to existing policies around sexual misconduct in the congressional workplace.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.