Budget push for immigration funding

Senate Republicans plan to release a budget resolution next week to unlock a party-line bill for immigration enforcement funding and break the Department of Homeland Security standoff. (rollcall.com) Roll Call reported April 16 that Republicans are targeting about $70 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol for at least the next three years. The resolution would direct the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Judiciary Committee to write the bill. (rollcall.com) Senate Majority Leader John Thune said April 16 that the resolution was drafted and that the Senate hoped to take it up by the middle or end of the week of April 20. He also said Republicans had been consulting Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on what can qualify for reconciliation. (rollcall.com) Reconciliation is the budget process that lets the Senate pass some fiscal legislation with a simple majority instead of 60 votes. Republicans are using it here because Democrats have opposed new enforcement money without new limits on immigration raids and deportations. (rollcall.com) (nbcnews.com) The shutdown fight started when the Senate approved a bill on March 27 to fund Homeland Security except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Speaker Mike Johnson has said he would hold that bill until a reconciliation measure for those agencies is enacted. (nbcnews.com) (rollcall.com) President Donald Trump backed that two-track plan on April 1 and set a June 1 deadline for Republicans to fund ICE and Border Patrol through reconciliation. Politico reported that endorsement pushed House and Senate Republicans onto the same approach after House resistance to the Senate bill. (politico.com) At the same time, health and disability groups are trying to keep Medicaid out of any follow-on budget package. The American Association on Health and Disability said April 16 that it and the Lakeshore Foundation had joined 359 organizations in a letter opposing Medicaid cuts in any additional reconciliation legislation. (aahd.us) The April 6 letter to the Senate Budget Committee said 8.4 million older adults and people with disabilities rely on Medicaid for support with daily activities, and said more than 600,000 people are on Medicaid waiting lists for home and community-based services. The letter also said states were already weighing service reductions after earlier federal cuts. (c-c-d.org) House leaders have not put an immigration reconciliation bill before the Rules Committee yet. The committee’s April 20 meeting notice, posted April 16, lists four other bills and a resolution, with no immigration funding measure on the agenda. (rules.house.gov) That leaves Republicans trying to move two tracks at once: a bipartisan Homeland Security funding bill to reopen the rest of the department, and a reconciliation bill to restore money for immigration enforcement by June 1. (politico.com) (rollcall.com)