Senate Republicans are aiming to adopt a budget resolution by Thursday as the first step toward providing roughly $70 billion for immigration enforcement through the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.

The Senate kicked off a marathon voting session, known as a “vote-a-rama,” Wednesday evening that was expected to run into early Thursday. Adoption of a budget resolution would lay the groundwork for passing a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill for immigration funding that could steamroll past Democratic opposition and help end a record-breaking partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

But the process is sure to be a slog, as Democrats look to force a series of votes on potentially politically tough amendments that range from immigration enforcement restrictions to economic matters that the party hopes to highlight in the run-up to the November midterm elections.

And the effort hit an early speed bump, delaying the start of the vote-a-rama, when Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., threatened to block the process from starting to call attention to amendments he was seeking to greatly expand the reconciliation package. Kennedy said he wanted amendments to instruct various other Senate committees to write legislation concerning medical debt, election integrity, health insurance access, government shutdown prevention and more.

He relented after giving a floor speech outlining his concerns. “I was going to stop us from voting tonight to try to prove my point,” he said, but decided not to do so because a delay was “going to hurt some of my colleagues.”

Democrats have filed more than 100 amendments, though not all may get a vote, while a small handful of Republicans also plan to bring up amendments. One GOP amendment, from Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, would seek to extend the prohibition on federal payments to health care groups like Planned Parenthood that provide abortions along with other medical services.

But the votes are largely expected to come up short as Republicans barrel ahead on the party-line reconciliation process in hopes of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol for three and a half years. And the narrowly tailored resolution, limiting the jurisdiction of legislation to two committees, makes it more difficult to consider a wide range of amendments.

The fiscal 2026 budget resolution calls on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee to write reconciliation legislation by May 15 that would provide up to $70 billion. It also calls on the House Homeland Security Committee and the House Judiciary Committee to do the same.

Once a budget resolution is adopted in both chambers, the detailed work on a reconciliation bill could begin.

The vote-a-rama is the latest step in Senate Republicans’ plan to end the ongoing shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security. Under the plan, ICE and the Border Patrol would be funded through reconciliation, while the rest of the department would be funded for fiscal 2026 via a separate Senate-passed spending bill.

But some Republicans see such a reconciliation bill as the last vehicle to advance major legislation ahead of the midterms — and as a result, with the House’s narrow GOP majority, a small handful of Republicans could easily hold a reconciliation package hostage to push their priorities.

“I don’t know that the House will not want to add things like fraud, for example, prevention, and build on what we did in the first one,” House Budget Chairman Jodey C. Arrington, R-Texas, said Tuesday, referring to last year’s “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill, when asked if the House would follow the Senate’s lead in pushing a narrower package focused on immigration enforcement.

“I think a valid question that some of my colleagues ask is, are we going to have a third bite at the apple? If we’re not, this is the last train leaving the station,” he said. “And nobody wants to miss the opportunity to do more fraud prevention program integrity, and even supporting our troops and our commander in chief with some sort of supplemental operation.”

Democratic amendment plans

Though Democrats are facing an uphill battle to see any of their amendments adopted, they’re using the vote-a-rama as an opportunity for a slew of messaging votes. Many of the planned amendments fall in two buckets: immigration enforcement restrictions and affordability.

On immigration, Democrats are set to propose a number of amendments seeking to enact key provisions they have been pushing for as part of ongoing immigration funding talks. Some amendments would target issues like mask policies for immigration agents and the use of judicial warrants, while others would focus on immigration judges and courts.

The second focus, affordability, is key to Democrats’ 2026 messaging. The party is seeking to capitalize on the economy under the Trump administration and drive home the impacts of last year’s budget reconciliation law, which forced cuts to Medicaid and other programs.

One amendment from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., would open the door to restoring the clean energy tax credits that were cut in the reconciliation law, for example.

A trio of amendments from Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., meanwhile, would seek to restore the enhanced health care tax credits that expired at the end of 2025 for one, two or three years.

Other amendments seek to tie pivotal programs and GOP priorities to the reconciliation law, with lawmakers proposing amendments looping in potential funding for items ranging from Pell Grants to support for military retirees.

“All the focus of those amendments is to show the contrast,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday. “We are for reducing costs for the American people, whether it’s housing or whether it’s health care or whether it’s electric costs, or whether it’s groceries or whether it’s child care. And [Republicans] are funding a rogue police force that is not even popular with the American people.”

Savannah Behrmann contributed to this report.