Overview
- After an all-night vote-a-rama, the Senate approved the GOP budget resolution early Thursday in a 50–48 vote, with Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul joining all Democrats in opposition.
- The plan steers roughly $70 billion to ICE and Border Patrol for about three years, and it now heads to the House before committees draft the reconciliation bill by May 15 under tight rules.
- Budget reconciliation lets budget-related bills pass the Senate with a simple majority instead of the usual 60 votes, which is why Republicans kept the package narrowly focused on immigration enforcement.
- Democrats pressed failed amendments to lower health and grocery costs and to add guardrails after fatal agent shootings in Minneapolis, while a Lindsey Graham amendment on deporting convicted violent offenders passed 98–0.
- DHS has been partly shut since mid-February and Secretary Markwayne Mullin says emergency pay money could run out in early May, putting pressure on House leaders weighing GOP demands to add riders and on Trump’s June 1 timeline.