Republicans couldn’t secure passage before recess amid divisions over $1 billion in ballroom security funding and an ‘anti-weaponization’ settlement fund.
Senate Republicans adjourned for the Memorial Day recess on May 21 without final passage of a roughly $72 billion reconciliation bill that would fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection, after internal GOP divisions over $1 billion in Secret Service security funding and a $1.8 billion Department of Justice (DOJ) “anti-weaponization” settlement fund.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) filed a unanimous consent request to adjourn the chamber and hold pro forma sessions—brief meetings during which no legislative business is conducted—on May 22, May 26, and May 28. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on June 1.
At issue were two Republican-pushed provisions related to $1 billion in Secret Service security funding tied to the White House East Wing project, which includes a planned $400 million ballroom, and the $1.8 billion settlement fund.
The settlement fund, also known as the “anti-weaponization fund,” was announced this week after President Donald Trump agreed to drop a lawsuit he had filed against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
He brought the case after an IRS contractor leaked his returns and agreed to drop it in exchange for the government creating the fund, according to the DOJ.
Republican senators emerged from a Thursday meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on potential parameters for the settlement fund. Asked by reporters whether the Senate would vote on the package before recess, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said simply, “We’re going home.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said, ”I don’t even know.”
The departure risks missing President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline for passage of the bill. Thune told reporters Thursday that senators had questions about the settlement fund and wanted to know “how we might make sure that it’s fenced in appropriately.”
A representative from Thune’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times prior to publication.
By Chase Smith
