WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US Senate handed President Donald Trump a ​victory early Friday morning, passing a bill that would provide the Department of Homeland Security with an additional $70 billion for immigration enforcement and sending it to the ‌House of Representatives for final consideration.
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The Senate voted 52-47 to approve the legislation, with no support from Democrats. One Republican voted against the bill.
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Republicans accused Democrats of “defunding” Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, despite the agencies having a combined $100 billion in unspent funds that was part of a larger DHS spending package enacted last year by Republicans.
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The House is not expected to take up the measure before next week, according to Republican leaders.
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EXTRA MONEY FOR DEPORTATION CRACKDOWN
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Much ​of Thursday’s long debate over the bill was overshadowed by efforts from Democrats, and some Republicans, to insert language unrelated to immigration. Those proposals revolved around prohibiting the use of ​federal funds and even private donations for building the lavish, 90,000 square-foot ballroom on White House grounds that Trump wants.
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Senators also debated provisions making â it illegal for federal dollars to be used for an “anti-weaponization” fund that could compensate Trump’s political allies for allegations that the government mistreated them.
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None of those amendments were approved.
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The funding provided by the ​bill would help pay for Trump’s controversial migrant deportation crackdown over the next three years and augment about $100 billion in unspent Department of Homeland Security law enforcement money enacted last year by Republicans, who ​control Congress.
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Lawmakers began voting on amendments to the immigration bill in a “vote-a-rama” session early on Thursday that culminated in the vote on the underlying measure in the early hours of Friday.
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An initial move by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to kill the “anti-weaponization” fund, which Democrats call a “slush fund” for Trump’s allies, brought the session to a largely procedural halt for hours after Republican Senator Susan Collins voted for the motion.
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She was later joined by fellow Republicans ​Jon Husted and Dan Sullivan.
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Schumer’s measure failed in a 50-49 vote but exposed the political turmoil among rank-and-file Senate Republicans. Some of them sought their own amendments to eliminate the fund permanently, five ​months before the November midterm elections.
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Collins, Husted and Sullivan all face competitive races for reelection at a time when Trump’s approval rating is down, even among Republicans.
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“Republicans refused to permanently outlaw Trump’s $2 billion slush fund, leaving taxpayers to ‌rely on â nothing more than a promise from Donald Trump’s personal fixer,” Schumer said in a statement after the vote, referring to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “That is not accountability. That is a permission slip.”
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The fund, which critics say would allow Trump to use taxpayer dollars to compensate his political allies, has already been put on hold by the White House and Justice Department.
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But on Wednesday, Trump declined to say whether the fund had actually been terminated, telling reporters: “I love it. I think it’s so important.”
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Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who opposed Schumer’s motion, told reporters he would not support passage of the funding bill without ​a Republican amendment vote to codify Blanche’s congressional ​testimony that the administration was abandoning the fund.
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Tillis argued â that failing to do so would place a burden on congressional Republicans up for re-election in November who are worried about a voter backlash to the fund.
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OPPONENTS CALL TRUMP FUND ‘IMMEDIATE AND DIRE THREAT’
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Nearly all of the immigration bill’s funding would go to DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol ​agencies that are carrying out the Trump administration’s vigorous deportations throughout the United States.
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Tillis later offered his own amendment to reallocate the controversial Trump ​fund’s resources to fraud-enforcement â operations. It failed in an 84-15 vote, while garnering support from 12 Republicans.
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Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who proposed his own amendment to end the fund, joined Democratic Senator Cory Booker in a friend-of-the-court brief urging US District Judge Leonie Brinkema to maintain the block on Trump’s fund that she imposed last week.
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They argued the fund “presents an immediate and dire threat to our constitutional order and the authority of Congress”.
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A number of recent â actions by Trump ​have prompted open criticism from some Republicans, from seeking $1 billion in taxpayer funding for a White House ballroom and security ​upgrades to his decision to nominate Blanche as attorney general and name political ally Bill Pulte as US intelligence chief.
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Cassidy, who lost his primary last month to two Trump-aligned challengers in Louisiana, has proposed a series of amendments, including one to nullify ​an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service protecting Trump from tax audits.