Graham says he’s moving ‘expeditiously’ on ICE, Iran funding under reconciliation

The Senate Budget Committee is moving “expeditiously” to draft a second budget reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) removal operations, enact elements of voting reform legislation and fund the war in Iran, according to a statement by Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Graham says he has the greenlight from President Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to begin working on a reconciliation package, which Republicans could pass through the Senate with a simple-majority vote, avoiding a Democratic filibuster.

“After consulting with President Trump and his team and Leader Thune, the Senate Budget Committee will expeditiously move toward creating a second budget reconciliation bill,” Graham said in a statement.

“The purpose of the second reconciliation bill is to make sure there is adequate funding to secure our homeland and to support our men and women in the military who are fighting so bravely,” he said.

Graham said a second reconciliation bill could also be used to implement elements of the SAVE America Act, a voting reform bill that is now on the Senate floor but faces a Democratic filibuster.

“I also think we have many opportunities to improve voter integrity through reconciliation. President Trump and Leader Thune are right to push for a second reconciliation bill to address the threats we face and keep our elections secure and fair,” he said.

Graham and Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Katie Britt (R-Ala.) presented the plan to remove ICE’s Emergency Removal Operations (ERO) funding from the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to help its passage through the Senate during a two-hour meeting at the White House Monday.

They pitched the idea of moving more money for immigration enforcement and also elements of the SAVE America Act through a budget reconciliation package later this year.

Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Bernie Morena (R-Ohio) also attended the meeting at the White House.

But the plan to split up the Homeland Security appropriations bill and rely on a budget reconciliation bill to enact parts of the SAVE America Act is getting strong pushback from Republicans.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), one of Trump’s strongest allies on Capitol Hill, called the plan to enact Trump’s agenda through another reconciliation bill is a “pipe dream.”

“This idea that they’ll get funded through a reconciliation package is a pipe dream. We’re not going to get a reconciliation package done,” Scott told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in an interview.

He said that a reconciliation bill could only be used to pass mandatory spending, not the discretionary spending that is typically used to fund the Homeland Security Department through the regular appropriations process.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a leading proponent of the SAVE America Act, said passing it through the reconciliation process would be “impossible” and likely require major revisions to the bill.

“It’s hard to imagine how the SAVE America Act could be passed through reconciliation. And by ‘hard’ I mean ‘essentially impossible,’” Lee said in a post on X.

Passing a reconciliation package through the Senate is an arduous process. It would require the Senate and House first pass a concurrent budget resolution through both chambers, which would require Senate Republicans to slog through an all-night vote-a-rama.

Then the Senate and House would have to pass a separate reconciliation bill, which would require another late-night vote-a-rama in the Senate, giving Democrats many opportunity to force Republicans to take votes on tough amendments that could be used as the basis for campaign ads in the fall.

Republicans spent months working on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which eventually passed through the budget reconciliation process.

The bill extended Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and implemented new tax relief as well as cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

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