The entire Department of Homeland Security has been shut down since mid-February, with Democrats demanding policy changes to weaken agents' ability to do their jobs.
But in the wee hours of Thursday morning, Republicans in the Senate used budget reconciliation to bypass the Democrats' filibuster and voted 50-48 to adopt a plan that would fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, most likely for the remainder of the Trump administration.
"It should never have come to this," says Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "There have been all sorts of roadblocks and detours along the way, but we are on the road now to getting this done under reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in both chambers of Congress to pass."
He says it comes with no conditions.
"The Democrats were trying to set how ICE can do its job, where it can do its job, when it can do its job; it effectively takes that off the table," Mehlman relays. "ICE will be able to do its job to find people who are in the country illegally and remove them, and they won't have to go through this ordeal every budgetary cycle for the next three years."
Budget reconciliation is a special, optional 1974 Congressional process that acts as a legislative "fast-track" to pass budget-related bills with a simple majority of 51 votes, or 50 + the vice president, rather than the standard 60-vote threshold.
While intended for once-a-year use, it has been used 24–29 times since 1980 to handle significant tax reform, entitlement changes and debt limit legislation, averaging roughly every other year, but more frequently in recent years.
This time around, Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) and GOP leaders have been pushing for a narrower reconciliation bill to fund DHS, arguing it is the fastest way to overcome Democratic opposition and avoid a budget standoff.
What passed Thursday was not the final reconciliation bill itself, but a budget resolution that starts the reconciliation process. The actual spending bill still has to be written and passed (including by the House), and the Associated Press hints that internal GOP disagreements about scope could still come back into play.
