By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republicans were poised on Wednesday to advance a $70 billion plan to fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agencies for the next three years, while ignoring demands from Democrats for guardrails on immigration enforcement agents and their operations.
The funding plan, laid out in a non-binding budget resolution that Republicans unveiled on Tuesday, is a crucial step in their effort to end a partial shutdown that has gripped the Department of Homeland Security since mid-February.
The Senate began a marathon “vote-a-rama” session late on Wednesday, with votes on a series of proposed amendments ahead of a final vote on passage expected before lawmakers leave Washington on Thursday. Senate passage would send the measure to the House of Representatives.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer vowed to use the marathon voting session to portray Republicans as out of step with American families and the challenges they face from soaring gasoline prices and healthcare costs.
“America will see even more clearly tonight where the Republicans are: not on the side of lowering costs, but on the side of masked agents occupying our streets,” the New York Democrat said.
He offered the first amendment of the vote-a-rama, a measure opposing the passage of funding legislation that fails to lower out-of-pocket healthcare costs, which failed but still drew support from Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who face challenging re-election bids in November.
At the same time, Republicans accused Democrats of wanting to “defund” crucial immigration and border security operations.
“Republicans are moving forward with a budget resolution that will allow us to fund critical functions that Democrats refuse to support: law enforcement, drug interdiction, border security, protecting children,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the Senate floor.
Republican Senator John Kennedy forced a delay of more than an hour by threatening to block the proceedings, saying party leaders had refused to allow him to offer amendments that would lower taxes, prevent medical debt from being reported to credit agencies and withhold pay from senators during a government shutdown.
“I can stop us from voting tonight, but I won’t do that. It’s going to hurt some of my colleagues,” he said.
Republicans hope to push the new funding for ICE and Border Patrol through Congress with a rarely used procedure known as budget reconciliation, which allows some budget-related legislation to bypass Democratic opposition.
Such measures require only a simple majority for passage in the 100-member Senate, instead of the usual supermajority of 60 votes or more. Republicans hold a 53-47 seat majority.
If the budget resolution passes both the House and the Senate, congressional committees would begin filling in the details on how the $70 billion would be spent in separate legislation that Trump would have to sign into law. The new funding would be expected to run through Trump’s presidency.
“Republicans must stick together and UNIFY to get this done,” Trump said in a social media posting on Wednesday.
Funding for most of DHS ran out more than nine weeks ago, as Democrats pressed Republicans and the White House to accept new constraints on ICE and Border Patrol, which operate under the direction of DHS.
After two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis, Democrats insisted that ICE and Border Patrol be subject to the same operational rules as police forces across the United States, including a requirement that judicial warrants be obtained before agents can enter private homes. But weeks of negotiations ended in a stalemate.
The Senate has since passed legislation to fund DHS operations other than ICE and Border Patrol. But the measure has stalled in the House, where hardline Republicans have demanded funding for those two entities as well.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Michael Learmonth, Edmund Klamann and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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