Overview
- Senate Republicans voted to open debate and begin a multi-day vote-a-rama on the roughly $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol package, starting a marathon of amendment votes that could decide the bill’s fate.
- The Justice Department created a roughly $1.776–$1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund as part of a settlement with President Trump and the IRS, but a federal judge issued a temporary injunction that currently bars activation or transfers.
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers the DOJ is “not moving forward with the fund” but declined to rescind the settlement in writing, leaving the fund’s legal status unresolved.
- President Trump has publicly praised the fund and said he does not know if it is dead, and Senate Democrats plan amendments to permanently ban the fund and to force recorded votes on the settlement’s IRS audit protections.
- Procedural rules pose a key risk because the Senate parliamentarian could rule fund-targeting amendments non-germane, which would raise the adoption threshold to 60 votes and could derail the reconciliation path for the ICE bill.