Senate Republicans have unveiled a budget resolution intended to unlock a fast-track process to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), aiming to end a long-running partial lapse in Department of Homeland Security funding. The move begins the budget reconciliation process, which would allow the GOP to try to approve spending without needing Democratic votes.
Republican leaders say they are pursuing reconciliation after months of stalemate: House and Senate Democrats have refused to approve money for ICE and CBP without major policy changes following the deaths of two U.S. citizens during encounters with federal agents earlier this year. Republicans argue reconciliation can be used to approve funding along party lines.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham introduced the resolution authorizing the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees to draft bills consistent with the new budget instructions. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the committees will produce legislation within a total spending target of about $70 billion, funding the agencies for roughly 3½ years. Senate Republicans set a June 1 deadline for passage.
Reconciliation is a procedure created by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 that allows certain budget-related bills to pass the Senate with a simple majority (51 votes), bypassing the 60-vote threshold normally required to end debate. It is intended for legislation that changes federal revenues, mandatory spending, or the debt limit, and it has been used periodically since 1980 for major measures, including the 2017 tax overhaul, pandemic relief packages, the Inflation Reduction Act, and other large budget bills.
The reconciliation process has two main stages. First, Congress adopts a budget resolution that issues instructions to specific committees to draft legislation that meets specified budget targets. Designated committees then draft bills to meet those instructions. Once the committees finish, the House and Senate consider the combined package and must reconcile any differences between their versions.
A hallmark of reconciliation is the “vote-a-rama,” a marathon sequence of amendment votes that follows the end of debate. During a vote-a-rama, senators can offer many amendments in rapid succession, giving the minority party opportunities to register objections and try to use budget points of order to alter or block parts of the package. Typically there is a vote-a-rama on the budget resolution itself and a more consequential one on the final legislative package.
But reconciliation has important constraints. It can be used for changes to mandatory spending, revenues, and the debt limit, but not for most discretionary spending. The Byrd rule, named for former Sen. Robert Byrd, allows senators to challenge provisions that are extraneous to the budget—those that lack a direct effect on spending or revenue, affect Social Security, or extend benefits or costs beyond the budget window (usually 10 years). The Senate parliamentarian advises whether provisions violate the Byrd rule, and offending items can be struck from the bill.
Because of those limits and procedural complexity, reconciliation is not a wholesale replacement for regular legislative processes; it is best suited to budget-focused changes. Still, for Senate Republicans looking to provide DHS funding without Democratic cooperation, reconciliation offers a path to move legislation forward on party-line votes.