The Senate approved a roughly $70 billion bill funding immigration enforcement early Friday, clearing a major package that will send money to Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and now moves to the House.
Lawmakers voted 52-47 at 4:52 a.m. after more than 18 hours of amendments and procedural votes. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the lone Republican to oppose final passage, while Republicans pressed ahead even as complaints lingered over President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion settlement fund and efforts by some lawmakers to constrain it.
The bill is one of the largest immigration enforcement measures to move through the Senate this year. It is also designed to finance those agencies through Trump’s presidency, giving the administration a long runway for border and detention spending if the House follows suit.
The overnight session was packed with side fights over unrelated priorities. Sen. Bill Cassidy proposed redirecting the $1.8 billion settlement fund to law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but that measure drew 52 votes and fell short of the 60 needed. The Senate also agreed unanimously to let Cassidy change a mistaken no vote to yes so he could support a Democratic proposal barring federal or private money from Trump’s planned East Wing ballroom; that proposal then rose to 53 supporters.
By the end of the marathon, some Republicans were openly frustrated with the detours. Sen. John Kennedy said the goal should have stayed focused on funding the Department of Homeland Security, warning that unrelated issues had been thrust into the process and needed to be dealt with. The bill now goes to the House, where Republicans canceled Friday votes and were instead looking to take it up next week.
The Senate’s vote leaves the House with a straightforward but politically loaded choice: accept the immigration spending package or reopen the fight over Trump’s settlement fund and the rest of the deal attached to it.
