Republicans Prepare Budget Reconciliation Package as DHS Funding Dispute Continues

Republicans are gearing up to use the budget reconciliation process to bypass Democratic opposition and fund immigration operations, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown continues. This legislative maneuver, which allows the Senate to circumvent the filibuster, has become a repository for GOP priorities throughout the year.

President Donald Trump officially endorsed using reconciliation this week, demanding that Republicans deliver a bill to his desk by June 1. “We are going to work as fast and as focused as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” Trump stated on Truth Social.

The same process was used last year to pass what Trump called his “big, beautiful bill,” but the approach comes with significant challenges. It requires getting enough Republican lawmakers on the same page to craft legislation that can pass both chambers while adhering to strict procedural rules.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has cautioned that Republicans need to “keep our expectations realistic” about what can be included in the reconciliation package, particularly given the limited timeframe.

“Our theory of the case behind all this was to keep that thing as narrow and focused as possible, and that maximizes the speed at which we can do it and the support for it,” Thune explained. “There will probably be some attempts to add things… But on a reconciliation vehicle like this—which we need to move with haste, as the president has pointed out—it’s probably not a likely magnet for all these other issues.”

Republicans have viewed reconciliation as a potential vehicle for addressing numerous priorities beyond immigration funding, including tackling fraud, affordability concerns, Trump’s tariff authorities, additional tax provisions, healthcare, funding for the Iran war, supplemental agriculture spending, and election integrity measures.

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) revealed at an event in South Carolina that he is considering two new reconciliation packages, which could alleviate concerns about cramming all GOP priorities into a single bill.

“We want to do it quick—ICE, Border Patrol—fund it as much as you can, multi-year,” Graham said. “Then there’s another one coming. I just made news. There’s another one coming in the fall, and that’s going to be about going after fraud.”

House Republicans, meanwhile, spent their recent policy retreat pushing for what they call “reconciliation 2.0,” aiming to load the package with several provisions that might struggle to earn support in the Senate. The Senate’s strict reconciliation guidelines could kill proposals entirely if they don’t comply with the rules.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) has called for a second reconciliation bill that would address affordability concerns. “We support pursuing funding for military readiness and Homeland Security through this legislative process, while simultaneously codifying the president’s agenda to deliver lower costs for working families,” the RSC Steering Committee stated.

Some Republicans are also pushing to include the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would implement voter ID and citizenship verification requirements. However, this legislation has no chance of passing the Senate due to unified Democratic opposition and is unlikely to survive the Senate’s reconciliation rules, which allow only provisions that directly impact spending.

“I think we have to set our sights a little bit lower on this reconciliation bill,” Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told Fox News Digital. “It’s got to be targeted to fund ICE for 10 years—I think that’s the number one thing for us. If we can nibble at the edges of the SAVE Act, that would be great, but the parliamentarian is not going to let us do the SAVE Act. That’s just an impossibility.”

House Republicans who strongly support the SAVE Act acknowledge the challenges of including it in reconciliation but prefer to keep the bill intact and push it through the Senate through other means.

“Look, it’s time for them to do a walk-and-talk and filibuster, and let’s make this thing happen,” Representative Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said. “The American people are watching—piecing it together just to try to get a piece.”