The Senate passed legislation early Friday morning to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, approving the $70 billion package on a 52-47 vote without placing limits on a disputed settlement or so-called "anti-weaponization" fund.
The final vote came after what senators described as an about 18-hour "vote-a-rama," during which lawmakers offered 29 amendments and motions before voting on final passage.
It was the sixth "vote-a-rama" of the 119th Congress, an unusually high number prompted by Republican interest in moving multiple party-line bills under budget reconciliation rules, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the floor, "I suspect there will be a lot of amendments today on a lot of topics."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered the first Democratic amendment to bar the Justice Department from creating a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund; that effort was held open for several hours before being defeated when Sen. Bill Cassidy voted against it and Sens. Jon Husted and Dan Sullivan voted with Schumer.
Passage followed weeks of delays and fierce backlash over the roughly $1.776 billion settlement fund, and Republicans spent much of the day haggling among themselves over whether to codify restrictions on the payouts.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said shortly before midnight, "This would have been done several hours ago if we weren't having to deal with some of the issues around the fund," and President Donald Trump later called the settlement "very important" and said, "I don't know" whether it is dead or on hold.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to join all Democrats in voting against the final package; Sen. Michael Bennet missed the vote and all other Senate Republicans voted for it.
The bill includes $38.6 billion for ICE, $22.6 billion for the Border Patrol, $5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and $108.5 million for child exploitation investigations.
Republicans defeated multiple attempts to permanently ban or limit the settlement fund, including an amendment from Cassidy that would have redirected payments to law enforcement officers injured in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol; eight Republicans supported an amendment to prohibit payments to Jan. 6 defendants convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers, but it failed to reach the 60 votes needed.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told House appropriators earlier this week that the administration would "not move forward with the fund," but Blanche's refusal to put anything in writing and the president's praise of the idea left some senators skeptical.
Democrats vowed to continue pressing the issue. Schumer said, "Trump's slush fund is anything but beautiful — it's heinous, and it won't die until we permanently ban it by law," and Democrats have said they will not fund ICE or the Border Patrol unless Republicans agree to new limits on the agencies after federal officers killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.
The bill now goes to the House, which is not expected to take it up until next week.
Some coverage said the measure would fund immigration enforcement for the next three years.
Lawmakers ultimately voted overnight to block many amendments that would displease the president.
One report described the package as $69.5 billion and said it would fund enforcement through 2029, and Republicans registered defections on various amendments including a protest vote against William Pulte's appointment.