The House took a major step toward providing funding for immigration enforcement agencies by adopting a Senate-backed budget resolution Wednesday evening. Now that both chambers have adopted the budget blueprint, lawmakers can move forward with a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill to provide around $70 billion in immigration enforcement funding. That money is designed to sustain the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies for the remainder of President Donald Trump's term. The vote on the GOP-written resolution was 215-211, falling strictly along party lines. Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, a Republican-turned-independent from a swing district, voted "present." But adoption of the measure proved to be a prolonged struggle. The vote had to be held open for more than five hours as Republicans tried to settle an unrelated intraparty dispute over expanding the use of corn-based ethanol in gasoline. After hours of negotiations, on and off the floor, Republicans reached a deal to handle the ethanol issue separately from the major farm bill they hope to pass this week. That deal apparently persuaded about two dozen GOP holdouts to finally vote for the budget resolution. The budget resolution instructs authorizing committees to write the detailed reconciliation legislation by May 15. The Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Judiciary committees will take the lead on writing the legislation, with the House providing input, sources say. Rep. Lloyd K. Smucker, R-Pa., blamed Democrats for blocking funding for the agencies in the regular appropriations process. Democrats have sought guardrails on immigration enforcement policy following two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year. “I don't like necessarily the way we're doing this, but there have to be grown-ups in the room," Smucker said in floor debate. "And that is Republicans right now, who are going to ensure that those people who are working hard to keep Americans safe every day are going to be able to count on a paycheck at the end of the week.” Democrats bashed Republicans for providing additional funding for ICE and CBP without new guardrails following the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. “I think the vast majority of the American people agree with me that we need to have a secure border, but that we cannot have any agency of our government carrying out killings on our streets,” said House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan F. Boyle, D-Pa. Boyle said that Republicans would be “showering” ICE and CBP “with additional billions of dollars that they simply don't need.” Those agencies won extra funding last year as part of the GOP's "big, beautiful" reconciliation law, with much of that money yet to be spent. House conservatives had expressed frustration about moving a "skinny" budget resolution focused only on immigration. Many had expressed a desire to broaden the package to include other GOP priorities in the run-up to the November midterm elections, out of concern that an additional reconciliation bill may not be possible this year. Path to end shutdown GOP leaders of both chambers have been hoping that passage of a reconciliation bill for immigration funding, or at least progress toward it, would allow the House to clear a Senate-passed appropriations bill funding the rest of the Department of Homeland Security for the current fiscal year and effectively ending a 74-day partial shutdown. House conservatives earlier had said they were uncomfortable with the Senate's bill because it would explicitly zero out funding for immigration agencies. It wasn't immediately clear if Speaker Mike Johnson planned to put that bill up for a vote this week. The rule would allow GOP leaders to bring it forward under the suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority. Johnson had said the bill needs to be changed because it was "haphazardly drafted," though it wasn't clear whether any change was still in the works. The Department of Homeland Security has warned that it will be unable to pay its workers next month, and the White House has urged the House to fund the department before leaving for its recess next week. The White House is also encouraging lawmakers to move forward with reconciliation, and work will continue to pick up over recess. The Senate is expected to bring a reconciliation bill to its floor first, and leaders are aiming for the week of May 11, after Congress returns from its upcoming one-week recess.
