共和党人对推进700亿美元移民法案的计划投了反对票，在会见代理司法部长托德·布兰奇(Todd Blanche)以解决对政府反武器化基金的担忧后撤退。
此举将这一进程至少推到周四下午众议院和参议院被送回家后为期一周的阵亡将士纪念日休会之后。
早前，两位知情人士向美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)证实，参议院共和党人准备试图控制唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统的两个有争议的支出计划:10亿美元用于东翼扩建，近18亿美元用于“反武器化基金”。
布兰奇取消了预先安排的前往国会山的旅行，试图平息共和党对“反武器化基金”日益增长的愤怒，该基金将用于补偿那些说他们在拜登政府手中遭受不公正待遇的盟友。但布兰奇的会面似乎完全适得其反。
多个消息来源告诉美国广播公司新闻，房间里有人大喊大叫，一些参议员-甚至一些特朗普的支持者-告诉布兰奇，他们认为他们会在基金问题上失去参议院的多数席位。
布兰奇甚至试图安抚共和党参议员，周四早些时候发布了一份情况说明书，称他们自己可以申请从该基金中获得资金。
共和党人正在寻找利用该法案为特朗普的“反武器化”基金设置护栏的方法。
周三下午，一些共和党人告诉记者，用于白宫安全的10亿美元——包括舞厅的资金——可能会从法案中删除，因为缺乏共和党的支持。
由于新法案的文本尚未公开，尚不清楚共和党人可能会试图对“反武器化基金”施加什么样的限制，该基金是司法部和特朗普之间解决他对国税局提起的100亿美元诉讼的核心。
纳税人出资的资金池将由代理司法部长任命的五人委员会管理，除了总统之外几乎没有监督，总统可以罢免成员。
参议员们正在研究可能的条款，以解决他们对该基金的担忧，但截至周四下午，这些讨论似乎仍然相距甚远。
共和党参议员苏珊·科林斯说“不”，布兰奇没有改变对武器化基金的想法。
共和党参议员约翰·霍文表示，在这个问题上的“共识建立过程”将“需要更多的工作”
“我们只是没有正确的配置，我们知道我们有50票，”他说。
共和党人可以尝试在实际的法案中嵌入基金的护栏，或者一旦法案提交参议院，他们可以尝试提出一项解决基金问题的修正案。
然而，如果共和党人不做些什么，人们普遍预计民主党人肯定会试图这样做。
参议院共和党人的目标是通过使用名为“和解”的预算工具来加强700亿美元的移民执法计划，这将使他们能够在参议院以简单多数票通过该法案，而不是通常的60票批准大多数立法事项。
但在法案通过之前，将会有一场名为“投票马拉松”的投票马拉松，在此期间，立法者可以对法案提出无限的修正案。
如果共和党人团结一致，民主党人无力阻止这一方案的通过，但民主党人可以提出一些修正案，迫使共和党人进行政治上棘手的投票。
如果共和党人不能在他们的基本法案或反对该基金的共和党人欢迎的修正案中提出一个明确的方法来解决“反武器化”基金，民主党领导的旨在限制该基金的修正案很可能会获得必要的共和党支持，以在参议院通过。
特朗普最近几周公开蔑视的一些参议院共和党人人已经成为该基金最直言不讳的批评者，包括参议员比尔·卡西迪，他在特朗普支持对手后输掉了路易斯安那州的初选。
卡西迪在周三晚上公开抨击了该基金。
“人们关心的是支付他们的抵押贷款或租金，支付食品杂货和汽油费用，而不是为总统和他的盟友筹集18亿美元的资金，在没有法律先例和责任的情况下，支付给他们想支付的任何人。这增加了我们的国债。如果需要和解，政府应该提交给国会决定，”卡西迪在x上的一篇帖子中写道
不管共和党人做什么，预计民主党人将利用“拉玛投票”迫使一些人投票，他们希望通过投票来牵制共和党人。
民主党参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔(Richard Blumenthal)周三告诉美国广播公司(ABC)新闻，他打算在投票期间强行对修正案进行投票，以“阻止这种非法的令人憎恶的贿赂基金”。
有了足够的共和党支持，民主党人就有真正的机会限制甚至取消这笔资金，作为大规模一揽子计划的一部分。取决于民主党人如何围绕国税局基金起草修正案，可能只需要四名共和党支持者就能通过其中一些修正案。
舞厅的资金怎么了?
据一些共和党议员称，用于白宫安全的10亿美元，包括特朗普舞厅的安全方面，正被共和党人取消。共和党议员表示，他们的会议中没有足够的支持来推进拨款。
参议院规则管理员周末表示，根据参议院的规则，10亿美元不能包括在法案中。尽管一些共和党人最初表示他们会重新起草这项措施，但一些共和党参议员强烈反对10亿美元的拨款，并威胁说，如果不取消这项法案，他们就会否决整个法案。
预计民主党人将召集一些修正案投票，试图将舞厅资金从法案中剥离出来。这些修正案只需要四名共和党人的支持，就有可能获得通过。
Senate goes on break amid GOP plan to curtail Trump 'anti-weaponization' and ballroom funding
Republicans are punting on plans to advance a $70 billion immigration bill, retreating after meeting with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to address concerns about the administration's anti-weaponization fund.
The move pushes the process until at least after their weeklong Memorial Day recess after the House and Senate were sent home Thursday afternoon.
Earlier,Senate Republicans were poised to try to rein in two of President Donald Trump's controversial spending wishes: $1 billion for the East Wing expansion and nearly $1.8 billion for an "Anti-Weaponization Fund," two people familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
Blanche canceled pre-scheduled travel to go up to Capitol Hill to attempt to quell the growing Republican outrage over the "anti-weaponization fund," which would be used to compensate allies who say they have suffered injustices at the hand of the Biden administration. But Blanche's meeting seems to have completely backfired.
There was yelling in the room, multiple sources told ABC News, with some senators -- even some vocal Trump supporters -- telling Blanche they believed they'd lose the Senate majority over the fund.
Blanche even tried to placate Republican senators by releasing a fact sheet earlier Thursday that stated they themselves can apply to receive money from the fund.
Republicans are looking at ways to use the bill to impose guardrails on Trump’s "anti-weaponization" fund.
On Wednesday afternoon, some Republicans told reporters that the $1 billion for White House security -- including funding for the ballroom -- would likely be removed from the bill because there was a lack of GOP support.
Because the text of the new bill hasn't been made public, it’s not yet clear exactly what restrictions Republicans may try to impose on the "Anti-Weaponization Fund," the core of the settlement between the Department of Justice and Trump to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
The taxpayer-funded pool of money will be administered by a five-person commission appointed by the acting attorney general with little oversight aside from the president, who could remove members.
Senators were working on potential provisions to address their concerns on the fund, but by Thursday afternoon, those discussions still appeared to be very far apart.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins said "no," Blanche did not change her mind about the weaponization fund.
Republican Sen. John Hoeven said the "consensus building process" on the matter is "going to require more work."
"We just don't have the right configuration where we know we have 50 votes," he said.
Republicans could try to embed guardrails for the fund in the actual bill, or they could instead try to offer an amendment addressing the fund once the bill is on the Senate floor.
However, if Republicans don’t do something, it is widely expected that Democrats will certainly try to.
Senate Republicans are aiming to muscle the $70 billion immigration enforcement package through using a budget tool called reconciliation, which will allow them to pass the bill with a simple majority of votes in the Senate instead of the usual 60 votes that it takes to approve most legislative matters.
But before the bill can pass, there will be a voting marathon known as a vote-a-rama, during which lawmakers are able to offer unlimited amendments to the bill.
Democrats are powerless to block this package from passing if Republicans stick together, but Democrats could put forward a number of amendments that force Republicans to take politically tricky votes.
If Republicans do not come up with a clear way to address the "anti-weaponization" fund in their underlying bill or in an amendment that is popular with Republicans who oppose the fund, Democratic-led amendments that look to restrict the fund could very well get the necessary GOP support to pass on the Senate floor.
Some Senate Republicans who Trump has publicly scorned in recent weeks have become the fund's most outspoken critics, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary race in Louisiana after Trump endorsed his opponent.
Cassidy spoke out on Wednesday night, bashing the fund.
“People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability. This is adding to our national debt. If there needs to be a settlement, the administration should bring it to Congress to decide,” Cassidy wrote in a post on X.
Regardless of what Republicans do, Democrats are expected to use the vote-a-rama to force a number of votes that they hope will pin down Republicans on the fund.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told ABC News on Wednesday that he intends to force votes on amendments to “stop this illegal abhorrent slush fund” during the vote-a-rama.
With enough GOP support, Democrats could have a real chance of putting restraints on -- or even eliminating -- this fund as part of the massive package. Depending on how Democrats craft their amendments surrounding the IRS fund, it could take as few as four Republican supporters to pass some of them.
What happened to the ballroom funding?
The $1 billion that was intended for White House security, including the security aspects of Trump’s ballroom, is being scrapped by Republicans, according to some GOP lawmakers. The Republican lawmakers are saying there isn’t enough support in their conference to move forward with the funding.
The Senate’s rule keeper said over the weekend that $1 billion could not be included in the bill under the Senate rules. Even though some Republicans initially said they’d redraft the measure, a number of GOP senators came out forcefully against the $1 billion allocation and threatened to tank the entire bill if it was not removed.
Democrats were expected to call up a number of amendment votes to try to strip the ballroom funding out of the bill. Those amendments only would have needed the support of four Republicans and likely would have passed.
