The Senate voted early Thursday morning to adopt a Republican budget blueprint representing the first step in a plan to provide some $70 billion for immigration enforcement agencies and end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown that has stretched on since mid-February.
The 50-48 vote just after 3:30 a.m. capped a series of 17 votes through the night as part of the “vote-a-rama” required under the special budget reconciliation process Republicans are using to be able to bypass a Democratic filibuster. No Democrats voted for the budget resolution, while Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul voted against it. Two Senators, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia, did not vote.
“We have a multi-step 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 said Wednesday before the votes.
Democrats charged that Republicans were ignoring Americans’ affordability concerns and were instead looking to provide a blank check for a lawless crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents. Democrats also argued that ICE and CBP already have about $100 billion in unspent funding from President Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but Republicans are asking for billions more anyway.
“ICE already has more funding than the Marines,” Sen. Raphael Warnock said in a post on X. “This money should be spent on things Americans need like health care, not Trump’s paramilitary force.”
Sen. Patty Murray made a similar criticism. “Republicans are pulling an all-nighter to shovel $70 billion at ICE—and can't be bothered to spend a cent to save health care for the millions of Americans who can't afford insurance,” she wrote online. “Shame on every one of them.”
The process now requires the House to adopt the same budget framework — and that may pose some challenges for Speaker Mike Johnson. Senate GOP leaders were able to keep their members largely united behind the narrowly focused budget framework, despite some calls to broaden the scope of the measure to include other party priorities. Johnson will face similar demands from some of his members who worry that this reconciliation bill may be the last chance to enact some key agenda items. Some also want the reconciliation bill to fund all of DHS, including other agencies that would get funded separately under the Senate’s two-step plan.
Some House Republicans reportedly met Thursday to discuss a potential third reconciliation bill, which faces plenty of skepticism but would help alleviate pressure to pack more into the current effort.
Thune told reporters that Johnson hasn’t provided any guarantee that the House can adopt the budget resolution that the Senate did.
“They know it's coming, and you know he's obviously got people who want to expand the scope too,” Thune said. “But I think hopefully the White House will be engaged in trying to make sure we get the budget resolution done.”
He added: “It doesn't seem like this should be that heavy of a lift, but nothing is easy these days.”
If the House can join in adopting the budget plan, the Senate plans to then take up the actual reconciliation bill funding immigration enforcement operations the week of May 11 — which means that the DHS shutdown is likely to still drag on for weeks.