The Trump administration’s $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization” fund is getting a frosty reception from Republicans on Capitol Hill. Senate Republicans are exploring ways to impose guardrails on the fund, including inserting language into the GOP’s party-line budget bill, a source familiar confirmed. Meanwhile, in the House, centrist members expressed concerns about the fund’s creation and how it is being paid for.Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA), who caucuses with Republicans, told the Washington Examiner he did not want to see the fund move forward, and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said the fund was “not right.”
“It’s incredibly strange, very unusual, probably unprecedented,” Kiley said. “It is, you know, setting up a system for unilaterally making private payouts of taxpayer dollars with no discernible public benefit.”
Kiley, a member of the Judiciary Committee, voted with all Democrats during a committee vote to subpoena several Trump officials who helped set up the account, including acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The vote failed 18-17.
Bacon told the Washington Examiner that while he did not know the legal or legislative recourse regarding the fund, he would welcome the option for Congress to look into it.
