By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
Trump’s congressional leaders never know what’s coming next from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Senate Republicans ended the week with much relief and self-congratulation. After struggling through a “vote-a-rama,” they managed to clear a budget reconciliation bill pre-funding immigration enforcement well into the post-Trump era. Majority Leader John Thune also sidelined efforts to use the bill to kill President Trump’s “anti-weaponization fund,” which he dropped into the middle of the legislative process like a stink bomb. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sponsored an amendment that would have barred the Justice Department from creating the fund. GOP leaders managed to gather enough votes to block the amendment while allowing endangered Republicans Susan Collins, Jon Husted, and Dan Sullivan to join Democrats in opposing Trump’s wildly unpopular fund.
