A group of conservative Republicans failed to strip an earmark to a left-wing nonprofit supporting illegal migrants in a government funding package on Friday.
Lawmakers voted 58-42 to table an amendment that would strip a $500,000 earmark to New York City-based New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) secured by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in the five-bill appropriations package. Every Democratic lawmaker voted to table the amendment, which was sponsored by Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee.
The vote divided Republicans with 11 GOP lawmakers supporting the motion to table. Those senators include John Boozman of Arkansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Many of those senators sit on the appropriations panel that oversees earmark requests.
NICE, located in the Queens borough of New York City, offers “empowering legal education” to noncitizens who have cases before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and immigration court. The group also provides workforce education programs to noncitizens.
“This is an organization that serves immigrants who are here illegally,” Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a leading opponent of earmarks, said in support of Lee’s amendment Friday. “Why should the American taxpayer foot the bill to support illegals in sanctuary cities when so many American citizens are struggling themselves?”
“We will never get inflation under control and interest rates down until we balance the federal budget,” Scott added.
Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray led the motion to table, arguing Lee’s amendment would derail the funding package and undermine the appropriations process.
“This amendment would strike funding for one member’s project simply because the senator offering amendment doesn’t like the project,” Murray said in reference to Lee. “That is not how this process should work.”
The amendment vote comes as the Senate is expected to approve a bipartisan spending agreement funding vast segments of the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year on Friday. The funding deal will also temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks while Democrats and the White House negotiate reforms to immigration enforcement following fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal officers in Minnesota.
The Senate voted to table another amendment from Lee Friday that would strip all earmarks from the five-bill appropriations package in a vote of 67-33. Every Democratic lawmaker voted to reject Lee’s amendment.
“The federal government, through taxpayers, should not be funding hospitals that give puberty blockers to children or nonprofit museums or left-wing labor activist organizations or left-wing physicians activist organizations or groups providing legal aid or subsidized housing specifically to illegal aliens,” Lee said Thursday evening ripping the slate of earmarks in the funding package, including the $500,000 allocation to NICE.
“We shouldn’t be facilitating this abuse of power and violating pledges that President Trump and that we ourselves as Senate Republicans have made on the campaign trail to root out and end wasteful wealth spending across the federal government,” Lee continued.
The Senate also rejected an amendment on Friday to remove $5.1 billion in refugee assistance funding within the appropriations package.
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