The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday ruled that major parts of the Republican immigration funding package does not conform with the Senate’s rules; however, Republicans have fixes coming.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough found that four parts of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s portion of the legislation will need to be reworked or it may be subject to 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans are using budgetary reconciliation to fund the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Republicans will move quickly to meet President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline for the legislation.
Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said, “Despite what Budget Dems would like folks to believe, the sky is not falling. These are all technical fixes that were not unexpected. We look forward to continued productive work with the parls [parliamentarians] to fully fund Border Patrol and immigration enforcement.”
Politico wrote:
MacDonough has ruled against a line in the bill that would fund the screening of people entering the United States, as well as $19.1 billion for parts of Customs and Border Protection. According to Democrats, she found those pieces of the legislation violate the strict rules of the reconciliation process because they would impact policy beyond the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — one of the two panels Republicans directed in the budget framework they adopted last month that unlocked the ability to advance the legislation in the Senate by a simple majority.
That could be an easier fix for Republicans, since the Judiciary Committee, the second of the two committees, also has jurisdiction over DHS. But the parliamentarian also took issue with a section that includes $2.5 billion Republicans are trying to enact to bolster the funds they enacted last summer through their party-line tax and spending megabill, as well as language that would allow funding to be used for initial screenings of unaccompanied immigrant children.
Democrats took the parliamentarian’s ruling as a victory.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, “Senate Republicans’ reconciliation bill tells you exactly who they’re fighting for: Trump’s raids, Trump’s violent ICE agents, and Trump’s gilded ballroom — not working families. Democrats promised to fight this bill tooth and nail, and on Day One, we forced Republicans back on their heels. They’re already scrambling to rewrite key pieces of their plan.”