Washington (United States) (AFP) – President Donald Trump’s agenda faced fresh challenges in the US Senate on Thursday, with lawmakers taking a raft of votes around contentious policy moves by the president that have whipped up Republican anxiety in recent weeks. Lawmakers were considering a $70 billion bill that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through fiscal 2029, handing Trump a major victory on one of his signature issues.
But before final passage, senators were plowing through an hours-long series of amendment votes known as a “vote-a-rama” — a chaotic process allowing lawmakers to force the opposite party to go on the record on politically sensitive issues. For Trump, that meant renewed scrutiny of controversies that have already unsettled his party’s lawmakers: a proposed “anti-weaponization” fund for allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the government and a deal limiting scrutiny of the president’s taxes. Funding that had been earmarked for security around his planned White House ballroom — a hugely contentious demand for $1 billion — was dropped from the text ahead of the floor debates.
The anti-weaponization fund and ballroom have become symbols of a broader unease among Republicans about defending the president’s priorities at a time when voters remain focused on the cost of living. The pushback from his own side has demonstrated that Trump’s agenda can still run into resistance from lawmakers wary of carrying his political baggage into November’s crucial midterm elections. The Senate voted 53-46 on Wednesday to open debate on the immigration bill, using a fast-track budget procedure that allows Republicans to pass it without Democratic support if they can keep their own members together.
Republican leaders say they are confident the bill can pass, but Trump’s allies have made the path more difficult. The measure was delayed for weeks after senators rebelled over the Justice Department’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” compensation fund. Critics attacked the measure as a “slush fund” that could allow Trump supporters convicted over the 2021 attack on the US Capitol to receive taxpayer money. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers this week that the administration would not move forward with the fund.
But Trump has continued to praise it, calling it “beautiful” and saying he would have to “ask the lawyers” whether it was dead or merely paused. That ambiguity has left several Republicans pushing to put the promise into law. “When you’re explaining, you’re losing. There’s no way to explain the $1.776 (billion) fund. So the only way you can explain it is explain that you got rid of it,” North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis told reporters.
The votes did little to derail Trump’s agenda but exposed unease within his own party, with Republicans defecting on amendments targeting the anti-weaponization fund, future ballroom funding, and Trump’s move to install a loyalist housing official atop US intelligence. In what was seen as a separate rebuke of Trump policy, several Republicans also backed a Democratic effort to circumvent House leadership with a vote to impose new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and provide $8 billion in military financing loans to Kyiv.
The immigration bill is still expected to pass if Republican leaders hold their conference together. The House, which has no voting scheduled for Friday, could take it up early next week.
© 2024 AFP
