Senate Democrats vow to make budget resolution vote painful for Republicans

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

Senate Republicans will kick off a vote-a-rama as soon as Wednesday evening on a budget resolution, unlocking a filibuster-proof way to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

The resolution contains instructions for crafting a budget reconciliation bill that can include up to $140 billion in annual appropriations for ICE and CBP over the next 3.5 years.

But the vote-a-rama allows senators to propose an unlimited number of amendments, and Democrats plan on making the most of it.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday that lawmakers in his party “will have lots of amendments” related to cost of living policies and predicted “a reconciliation of reckoning” for Republicans.

“Republicans are about to learn the hard way that when they refuse to reduce costs, American families lose, and they lose,” Schumer said. “We are going to make them own this decision, amendment after amendment, vote after vote.”

Reconciliation is a last-ditch effort by Republicans to finish the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process and reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which has been partially shut down now for 68 days.

Senate Democrats had refused to provide the necessary votes for the Homeland Security appropriations bill to pass unless Republicans included a litany of immigration enforcement reforms.

Though Republicans had eventually agreed to many of the reforms requested, such as requiring ICE agents to display I.D. and wear body cameras, they refused to budge on demands for additional warrant requirements and requiring localities’ consent before conducting migrant removal operations.

Negotiations finally crumbled completely and the Senate ended up passing a Homeland Security bill entirely stripped of ICE and CBP funding.

The House needs to approve the hybrid bill before DHS can reopen, but skeptical House Republicans are waiting for the isolated ICE and CBP funding to advance in the Senate via reconciliation before agreeing to the unconventional funding tactic.

Democrats and deficit watchdogs alike have condemned this unconventional use of the budget reconciliation process, with Schumer claiming Republicans are “helping destroy” the regular-order government funding process.

Schumer didn’t comment on whether Democrats intend to use the same tactic against Republicans if the balance of power flips. Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., however, said Republicans are “setting a precedent for the future, and it’s going to be extremely difficult in the future for whoever ends up in the minority.”