Key border security officials in President Donald Trump’s administration are warning that Congress’s failure to pass the president’s “one big, beautiful bill” quickly could negatively impact the president’s efforts to deport illegal migrants.
White House border czar Tom Homan and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have both signaled that Republican lawmakers must pick up the pace to pass a forthcoming budget bill that will send more than $100 billion in new border security funding to federal immigration authorities. The administration’s warnings come as House conservatives are threatening to tank a budget blueprint that will lay the groundwork to enact President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
The budget plan would unlock funding to finish border wall construction, increase the number of detention beds to hold illegal migrants and hire additional ICE officers, according to Senate Budget Committee chairman Lindsey Graham.
Homan has been urging Congress to make progress in transferring new funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since early February. He and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought met with Senate Republicans on Feb. 11 to urge Republican lawmakers to quickly fund the president’s deportation and border security efforts.
Nearly two months later, Homan is still waiting for Congress to fund the president’s immigration enforcement priorities.
Senate and House GOP leadership — in addition to Trump — are calling on House conservatives to support the Senate-amended budget blueprint, which could receive a vote as early as Wednesday evening.
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday that he is confident the budget resolution will pass on the House floor later on Wednesday, citing his belief that the Senate is committed to significant deficit reduction in a forthcoming budget bill.
“The president’s been willing to help … I think we get this job done,” Johnson told reporters.
Passage of the budget resolution — the first stage in the budget reconciliation process — will allow both chambers to begin negotiating a massive tax and spending bill seeking to fund the president’s border security agenda.
“We got to hope Congress gets that done, because there is a limited amount of funds,” Homan told Semafor Monday. “And to do more, we got to buy more detention beds. We need more flights. We need more officers. We need more overtime. Bottom line is: The more money we get, the more successful we will be.”
“Is it taking too long? Yes, it’s taking too long,” Homan added. “I wish they would have passed it by now.”
The DHS sent an undated memo to Congressional offices this week explaining how failure to provide the administration with new border security funding will harm Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, including border wall construction, detention beds to hold illegal migrants and hiring additional ICE officers.
“Failure to Pass Reconciliation at the Requested Levels will Undo all the Trump Administration’s Massive Successes,” the memo states.
House conservatives are threatening to oppose the Senate-amended budget resolution, citing concerns that the budget blueprint fails to include enforceable spending cuts.
“I cannot support the current Senate Budget plan,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas wrote on X Wednesday. “It “instructs” the Senate to INCREASE deficits by failing to limit spending (only $4BB) while simultaneously reducing tax revenues (even adjusting for growth).”
House Freedom Caucus chair Andy Harris of Maryland has also pledged to oppose the budget resolution on the House floor.
“$4 billion in spending cuts in the Senate budget resolution is less than one day’s growth in the budget deficit,” Harris wrote on X Wednesday. “This spending addiction has to stop now.”
Senate Republicans have countered that the budget resolution instructions are just a starting point and that they are serious about achieving substantial spending reductions in an anticipated tax and spending bill.
“All we simply did was add the Senate basically priorities to the House-passed legislation so we didn’t touch the instructions that the House gave,” Thune said during the Senate GOP leadership press conference Tuesday. “They can proceed with those. And as we get into the reconciliation process, we’re going to be very committed to doing as much as we possibly can on deficit reduction.”
Top House GOP leadership are in agreement that passing the Senate-amended budget resolution will not prohibit House Republicans from advocating for significant spending cuts in an anticipated budget reconciliation bill.
“The Senate version of the budget resolution does not prevent the House from achieving the goals we set for ourselves earlier in this process,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said at the House GOP leadership press conference Tuesday. “We will continue to advocate for the final reconciliation bill to include historic spending reductions while protecting essential programs, but we must act now to bring the process to moving the America first agenda on track.”
“Failure in Congress could mean failing President Trump and the American people, and that is not an option,” Emmer added.
Senate Republicans are also giving House GOP leadership a helping hand in advocating for quick passage of the budget blueprint this week.
“I think we should get the process started. The only thing we’re voting for is … saying let’s start a reconciliation process,” Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio told the DCNF. “If you want to argue about what’s going to be in the bill, then argue about what’s going to be in the bill when we start writing the bill … I urge my house colleagues to stop the hand wringing. Let’s just get started.”
“We’ve got to get going,” Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told the DCNF. “We’ve got to saddle up and ride.”
Trump pleaded with House conservatives to “stop grandstanding” during remarks at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual dinner Tuesday night.
“If we screw this up, you [the American people] should be really pissed,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said during a group interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday night. “We can’t afford to screw this up.”
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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