The U.S. House is poised to vote to on a $70 billion package to fund immigration enforcement agencies and, after months of partisan fighting, send the measure to President Donald Trump's desk.
The package would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, two Department of Homeland Security subagencies left out of an earlier spending bill amid Democratic opposition, and bring to an end a drawn-out debate over immigration enforcement policy that began in January and led to a government shutdown.
A final House vote to pass the immigration funding package could come as soon as Tuesday.
The Senate passed the package early Friday morning on a 52-47 vote. It would fund the immigration enforcement agencies through the end of Trump's presidency. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was the lone Republican to vote against it.
"We were forced to use the reconciliation process because Democrats objected – during the appropriations process – to giving any money to Border Patrol and ICE, effectively shutting our border security down at a time of growing threats to the nation," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chair of the Senate budget panel, said in a statement on Friday after the measure passed. Graham was referring to the budget reconciliation process, which allows for the passage of legislation in the Senate on a party-line vote.
