Congress

Senate GOP passes immigration enforcement bill

Published

5 months ago

June 5, 2026

Senate Republicans passed their $70 billion immigration enforcement bill Friday, beating back several attempts to rein in the Justice Department’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

Senators voted 52-47 on the bill after roughly 18 hours of amendment votes. In the end, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican to vote against the bill.

The House left town Thursday rather than stay and pass it before leaving for the weekend. Now it won’t go to President Donald Trump until early next week — pushing the GOP even further past Trump’s self-imposed June 1 deadline.

Friday’s vote followed weeks of stops and starts as Republicans saw momentum on their party-line package get repeatedly derailed because of Trump’s political priorities. First Republicans needed to contend with the administration’s push to get $1 billion in Secret Service funding, part of which could go toward the White House ballroom project.

Then came the Justice Department’s announcement of a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” critics feared would be used to give payouts to the administration’s allies, including those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the end, Republicans nixed the ballroom security money from the bill and beat back several attempts to jettison or place guardrails on the fund from Democrats and some of their own members.

“It’s a simple bill,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday in defense of the legislation. “It will do nothing more than fund Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for three years … because Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security or immigration law enforcement.”

But Democrats hammered Republicans for not including language that would limit or prohibit the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told House appropriators that the administration wouldn’t go forward with it.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of “taking the great values of America on our 250th year and flushing them down the toilet because you’re afraid of Donald Trump.”

He added, “Are Republicans really going to take Todd Blanche, a known liar, at his word?”

In the end, the marathon vote-a-rama did expose GOP fault lines.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) offered an amendment that would have inserted language to block the construction of Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom unless Congress authorizes the project. It was rejected by a 53-46 vote, short of the required 60-vote threshold, but not before several Republicans lined up in support: Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, as well as Murkowski and fellow Alaskan Dan Sullivan.

Eleven Republicans joined with Tillis in an attempt to advance his amendment that would have redirected the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” toward fraud enforcement at the Justice Department. The amendment fell well short of the 60 votes it would have needed to move forward, since most Democrats opposed it because of how Tillis redirected the funding.

Republicans held the first vote of the day — an effort by Schumer to effectively kill the bill by punting it back to the Judiciary Committee — open for hours as they huddled with their own members, who wanted to get language into the bill to nix the fund.

Cassidy himself spent hours trying to get a vote on an amendment related to the fund at a 50-vote threshold. In the end, he offered — with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) — an amendment that failed to clear a 60-vote hurdle, which would have redirected money to law enforcement officers injured on Jan. 6.

And Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama called out fellow Republicans who voted against advancing an amendment to loop part of the GOP election bill, known as the SAVE America Act, into the bill, saying that “the people of North Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky, and Maine deserve better.”

Republicans ultimately decided to go it alone in funding the immigration enforcement activities within the Department of Homeland Security through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process — after they were unable to get a deal with Democrats linking the money to new guardrails on ICE and Border Patrol after federal agents killed two people in Minneapolis in January.

The bill would provide roughly $38.5 billion for ICE and more than $26 billion for Customs and Border Protection, as well as an additional $5 billion that will be dispersed at the discretion of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Among other amendments rejected during the hourslong voting session was a proposal from Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) that would effectively bar housing official Bill Pulte from serving as acting director of national intelligence by prohibiting a Senate-confirmed leader of a federal agency or department from serving simultaneously in the DNI role.

Collins, Cassidy and Murkowski voted with Democrats on the proposal, which went down 49-49

“This role was too important to be filled by a part-time, unqualified individual,” Warner said.

Katherine Tully-McManus and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Scalise heads to Florida to boost several GOP candidates

Published

7 hours ago

October 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is heading to Florida to boost a raft of Republicans as the House GOP campaign arm launches new spending across the ruby-red state.

Republicans are working to ensure they prevail in a series of tight Florida races after they redrew several districts in their favor. Several GOP incumbents have warned the party needs to do more to help put out fires across these areas. Scalise is just the latest Republican leader who is looking to shore up candidates in once-thought-to-be-safe red territory.

Scalise will hold a GOTV rally Thursday with Republican Dan Green who is challenging Democratic Rep. Darren Soto in central Florida’s 9th District, according to an invite obtained by Blue Light News. Soto should be toast from the GOP redistricting effort, but he’s still hauling in significant fundraising and Democrats say their internal polling shows a tight race.

Over on the Gulf Coast, the National Republican Congressional Committee is also launching its first coordinated ad spending for Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on Wednesday. House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, GOP governor nominee Rep. Byron Donalds and Sen. Ashley Moody, who is also up for reelection, are appearing at a Saturday rally with Luna.

President Donald Trump won Luna’s district by 13 points and Democrats have tried and failed to target her before. But Republicans are warning the headwinds are stronger this year and forcing a tighter than expected race.

Republicans are also working to shore up key seats in South Florida. Scalise will be with GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar in the Miami area Friday, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, granted anonymity to share not yet public details. Salazar has raised alarm about Republican erosion with Hispanic voters in his district and other states over the Trump administration’s mass deportations.

Scalise will boost Ryan Elijah, the Republican who beat scandal-ridden Rep. Cory Mills in the primary in Florida’s 7th District, according to another person with direct knowledge of the matter, granted anonymity to speak candidly. The party feels better about the seat in recent weeks, especially more than they would have if Mills had won the GOP nomination.

The House Majority Leader will also hold events with Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast and Rep. Gus Bilirakis, according to the person.

Congress

Capitol agenda: The unknowns of a Sherrod Brown return

Published

13 hours ago

October 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Democrats may be rooting for Sherrod Brown’s comeback, but they are not exactly prepared for what’d happen next.

If Brown wins on Election Day, Democrats likely face an uncomfortable choice: break longstanding party rules to restore his seniority on powerful committees like Banking, Agriculture and Finance or potentially make him start over at the bottom.

Complicating the issue: Brown will immediately need to prepare for a grueling re-election fight in 2028 and his campaign could greatly benefit from two years with a high-profile gavel. That’s because this midterm is Ohio’s special election where voters are selecting a senator to serve out the remainder of Vice President JD Vance‘s term.

Brown’s post, therefore, may not only deeply impact Democrats’ policy agenda but could also play a key role in the party’s success in winning the battleground seat in 2028.

Some members are already suggesting the party should try to find a middle ground.

“Some accommodation that recognizes he would not be a rank freshman would make sense. But that’s distinct from handing him back a leadership role at Banking,” said Sen. Chris Coons.

The Ohio Democrat served as the top Democrat on the Banking panel for a decade. He was also a longtime member of Finance as well as Agriculture, where he would also be the most senior member if his previous service counted.

To give Brown a gavel on Agriculture or Banking could set up clashes with the Democrats now expected to lead their party on the panels: Sens. Michael Bennet and Elizabeth Warren, respectively.

It would also break Senate Democrats’ caucus rules, and precedent is not on Brown’s side when it comes to making exceptions.

Still, aides and lobbyists around the panels expect Democrats will be eager to give Brown some sort of perch.

Those close to him have been encouraging him to seek the Agriculture gavel. It’d allow him to deliver valuable policy wins for Ohio’s rural areas, influence the farm bill if it gets punted to next year and help guide the direction of cryptocurrency regulation.

Another possibility that avoids an intraparty clash: hand Brown a seat on Appropriations, which could potentially give him a subcommittee gavel and federal funding clout.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has avoided any firm commitments on Brown’s seniority, saying last month when asked: “Let’s win back the Senate first.”

What else we’re watching:

— OMAR RAID RAISES QUESTIONS FOR GOP: House Republicans — including Majority Whip Tom Emmer — have publicly cheered on the Trump administration’s investigation of GOP boogeyman Rep. Ilhan Omar. But the raid raises thorny questions for GOP leaders about how aggressively Congress wants to defend itself — regardless of party — from encroaching federal prosecutors. Lawmakers’ work communications are protected from prosecutors’ scrutiny, with few exceptions, under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. That draws into question whether the emails, texts, and materials on Omar’s phone, which was seized in the raid, could legally be reviewed by Trump officials. So far, Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to weigh in on how the House’s legal team may defend Omar.

— TRUMP’S TRICKY FARM MONEY PROMISE: Trump’s move Monday to turn out GOP voters by promising to send farmers $8 billion in taxpayer money is already facing a reality check. The internal USDA taxpayer-funded account Trump is tapping doesn’t actually have enough money in it right now to make the payments, meaning Congress will have to approve new funds or the administration will have to take it from another program, according to three Trump officials granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Plus, farmers wouldn’t receive the payments until late November or early December at the earliest — well past Election Day, according to three people close to the plans.

Jasper Goodman, Grace Yarrow, Kyle Cheney and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

This member is so frustrated with Congress he wants voters to sidestep it

Published

13 hours ago

October 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

At the end of one of the least productive Congresses in modern history, freshman Rep. Johnny Olszewski is so sick of the gridlock on Capitol Hill that he wants voters to bypass it entirely.

“It’s been a long two years,” the Maryland Democrat said in a Tuesday interview.

“One of the things that’s made it difficult as a new member is to see not only the dysfunction, but also the missed opportunities,” he added. “There are so many issues out there that Americans support that this Congress and frankly prior Congresses have failed to act on.”

Fed up with the lack of progress on popular policies like banning congressional stock trading, equipping police with body cameras or protecting in vitro fertilization, Olszewski is introducing a constitutional amendment Thursday, first shared with POLITICO, that would create a mechanism for voters to make federal law directly.

The measure would give voters 18 months to gather signatures from at least 5% of people who participated in the most recent presidential election in 25 states. Then any qualifying direct-democracy measure would be put on ballots for the next national election and need a 60% national majority to pass.

Votes to declare war or direct federal spending would not be eligible under the proposal.

“If we were acting, there’d be no need for this to come into play,” Olszewski said. “It would create a really important backstop for the American people to say, ‘You know what … irrespective of which party is in power, Congress is failing to meet not just our everyday needs but act on issues that we overwhelmingly support and want to see acted upon.’”

The amendment — which itself would require support from two-thirds of the House and Senate as well as three-quarters of states — is an incredible longshot and would create serious implementation headaches, but Olszewski — a former civics teacher — hopes his proposal will spark a discussion about congressional reform.

“I understand that any constitutional amendment is going to be difficult,” Olszewski said. “But I’m hopeful that at least for the lame duck session, this is an opportunity to create a conversation around the fact that we have been so gridlocked that we have failed to address the needs of the American people.”