Now it’s the House’s turn. After the Senate last week pushed through Republicans’ $70 billion bill funding immigration enforcement agencies, House GOP leaders are reportedly confident that they will be able to do the same without any major impediments — though that remains to be seen.
At the same time, there are lingering questions about the fate of the Trump administration’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
While a Senate Republican revolt over the fund fizzled, the issue hasn’t gone away, thanks in large part to President Trump, who continues to defend the fund even after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers last Tuesday that the government would not move forward with the plan.
Trump again spoke in support of the fund — and defended rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 — in his Friday interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Trump claimed that “radical left lunatics” in the Biden administration had destroyed people’s lives and argued that people who had been harmed by the “weaponization” of government deserved to be compensated. He seemed to call on Republican lawmakers to authorize the payout fund.
“So me, personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans,” Trump said. “You have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.”
Trump might still end up disappointed, given that Democrats and many Republicans remain vehemently opposed to the fund, especially given the possibility that January 6 rioters who attacked police could benefit from it. (In his NBC interview, Trump would not rule out the idea that taxpayer money could go to people who attacked police officers at the Capitol. He even defended those who pleaded guilty to assaulting police, repeating unproven claims that FBI agents were “ushering them into the building” and arguing that people who pleaded guilty only did so “because they were frightened” of receiving longer sentences.)
Punchbowl News reports that Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi are set to launch a discharge petition this week to block the Trump administration from establishing a weaponization fund — and the lawmakers should be able to get enough signatures to force a vote on the House floor. Fitzpatrick and Suozzi introduced legislation last week that would prohibit any federal funds from being used to pay claims submitted to the “anti-weaponization” fund.
Still, the Senate has demonstrated that there aren’t 60 votes in the chamber to block the fund. The Republican senators who made considerable noise last week about stopping the “anti-weaponization” payouts ended up approving the GOP’s party-line immigration bill even without language to block or limit the fund. Only one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, voted against the bill. Asking Senate Republicans to formally reject the idea appears to be a tall task, meaning the fund might not be as dead as Blanche indicated last week.
“Trump is still moving forward with his cop beater slush fund,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy wrote in a Sunday post on X, citing the NBC interview. “He says it here plainly - if Congress doesn’t stop him, he’s doing it. Republicans had their chance last week to prohibit the [fund] and they voted with Trump. So let’s stop the breathless talk of the GOP finally standing up to Trumps corruption. They never will.”
The bottom line: Trump sure sounds like he still wants the “anti-weaponization” fund to be set up.