Senate Republicans adopt budget resolution in late-night voting marathon

Senate Republicans adopted a budget resolution during a late-night voting marathon that lasted until early Thursday morning, setting the stage for Congress to vote next month on a budget reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement and reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The resolution passed by a vote of 50-48 shortly after 3:30 a.m. EDT. GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rand Paul (Ky.) joined all Democrats in voting against the measure.

GOP senators mostly stuck together to beat back Democratic amendments that could have derailed the budget resolution, but two vulnerable Republican senators — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska) — defected on several amendments.

They voted for amendments to lower out-of-pocket health care costs, to reverse the cuts made last year to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and to address health insurance companies that delay or deny medical care, revealing nervousness within the GOP conference ahead of the midterm election.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a conservative who has repeatedly spoken out on the need to lower health care costs, joined Collins and Sullivan to create a point of order against any reconciliation bill that fails to address insurance companies delaying or denying medical care.

Collins, Sullivan and Hawley also voted with Democrats in support of an amendment sponsored by liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) directing the Budget Committee chair to take action to help slash the price of prescription drugs by more than 50 percent.

Sanders said his proposal would codify the president’s executive order establishing “most favored nation” drug pricing to ensure that Americans don’t pay more for their medications than Canadians and Europeans.

The amendments, even if approved, wouldn’t have had the force of law. But Democrats sought to use the debate to force Republicans to take a series of tough votes during a marathon session that lasted well past midnight.

Senate rules allow senators to offer an unlimited number of amendments to the budget resolution, which only needs a simple majority to pass.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) tried to make the votes as painful for Republicans as possible.

“This reconciliation, or this budget act, will show who’s on whose side, and clearly if Republicans vote against our amendments, they’re not on the side of the American people,” he said on the floor Thursday night.

Senate passage of the measure is an important first step to unlocking the budget reconciliation process that will allow Republicans to pass funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol without having to face a Democratic filibuster.

“We have a multistep process ahead of us, but at the end, Republicans will have helped ensure that America’s borders are secure and prevented Democrats from defunding these important agencies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on the floor.

GOP senators plan to advance a package next month to fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2029 at a cost of between $70 billion and $80 billion.

But to do that, the House must first pass its own budget resolution and the two chambers must work out any differences between the two measures.

Once that’s done, Senate Republicans will be able to craft a narrowly focused budget reconciliation package to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

The resolution unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) earlier this week instructs the Senate Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee to create a bill to fully fund those agencies for 3 1/2 years.

It instructs the panels to each produce a bill that does not add more than $70 billion to the deficit over 10 years, giving them room to craft a bill that could cost as much as $140 billion but which GOP aides say will cost roughly half that amount.

Thune urged his colleagues to keep the reconciliation package as narrowly focused as possible to increase its chances of passing Congress quickly.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin warned in a “Fox & Friends” interview Tuesday that his department will run out of money to pay employees early next month.

“I’ve got one payroll left, and there is no more emergency funds, so the president can’t do another executive order because there’s no more money there,” Mullin warned.

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down since Feb. 14, when its funding lapsed after Senate Democrats blocked a House-passed Homeland Security appropriations bill that included funding for ICE and Border Patrol.

Democrats have insisted on reforms, such as requiring federal officers to obtain judicial warrants and banning them from wearing masks, in exchange for funding those immigration enforcement agencies.

Negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats to reform ICE and Border Patrol failed to reach a deal after weeks of negotiation, prompting Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to strike a deal with Senate colleagues before Easter to pass a bill that funded most of the DHS, but not immigration enforcement.

Thune told GOP colleagues at the time that they would use the budget reconciliation to circumvent a Democratic filibuster to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

Republican senators agreed to pass the Homeland Security appropriations bill without money for ICE and Border Patrol after being told Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was on board with the plan.

But Johnson later refused to put the Senate-passed Homeland Security funding measure on the floor without funding for the immigration enforcement agencies.

That hardline stance put pressure on Senate Republicans to move as quickly to draft a budget resolution to begin the process for passing a reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

The Speaker indicated to reporters this week that he’s not going to move the Senate-passed Homeland Security appropriations bill until the Senate also passes the budget reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement.

Asked if Senate Republicans are pressing the House to take up and pass the partial Homeland Security funding bill that passed the upper chamber last month, Thune pointed out that money for essential federal employees is “going to run out pretty soon.”

“I think that message is being delivered and hopefully will be received, and we can get moving forward with making sure those agencies are funded,” he said.

The budget resolution doesn’t include language to set the stage for including the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, President Trump’s top legislative priority, in the budget reconciliation package — despite calls from some Republicans, such as Sen. John Kennedy (La.), to do so.

An amendment sponsored by Kennedy to instruct the Senate Rules Committee to put together legislation to ensure that only American citizens vote in federal elections, to require voters to prove their identities and to require all ballots to be counted within 36 hours of Election Day failed by a vote of 48-50

Four Republicans voted against Kennedy’s amendment to add the core elements of the SAVE America Act to the budget reconciliation package: Collins, Murkowski, Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

Senators voted against an amendment sponsored by Paul to offset the projected $70 billion cost of the reconciliation package by eliminating $5 billion in refugee welfare funding, cutting $4 billion from the National Science Foundation and shrinking the Department of Education by 16 percent.

The amendment failed by a vote of 24-74.

Updated at 12:08 p.m. EDT.

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