Budget resolution for immigration funding headed to Senate floor
Source: Roll Call
Posted April 20, 2026 at 6:21pm
Senate Republicans plan to release their budget resolution and take a procedural vote as early as Tuesday, kicking off the cumbersome process for a reconciliation bill designed to help end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D., said Monday he hopes to confine the bill to the narrow mission of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.
The party is aiming to provide about $70 billion in funding to sustain the immigration agencies for at least the next three years, without placing any new guardrails on federal immigration agents sought by Democrats. The budget resolution would contain instructions to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Judiciary panels, which would be charged with writing the details of the upcoming reconciliation bill. “When you start adding other committee jurisdictions, everything gets harder,” Thune said.
Passage of immigration funding through a reconciliation bill could pave the way for the House to clear a Senate-passed bill to fund the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, thereby ending a record-breaking partial shutdown that has persisted for more than two months. But with Democrats staunchly opposed to more immigration funding without restraints, Republicans in both chambers will need to stay unified to pass the measure on their own with razor-thin majorities.
Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is writing the budget resolution and plans to meet with other Budget Committee Republicans Tuesday morning. Graham has said he would limit his budget resolution to immigration funding, while deferring other priorities, such as defense and anti-fraud measures, to a subsequent reconciliation bill later in the year.
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2026/04/20/budget-resolution-for-immigration-funding-headed-to-senate-floor/
Um, "later in the year" would have to be AFTER Sept. 30 because the reconciliation process can only be used for each type (taxing/spending/debt), ONCE a fiscal year.