WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Senate Republicans were evaluating Tuesday whether the Trump administration’s meant to compensative the president’s allies eased their concerns enough to move forward with votes this week on separate legislation funding immigration enforcement.
Democrats were relishing the chance to put Republican senators on the record about the settlement fund for those who claim to have been politically prosecuted. They were promising scores of votes on the issue when the immigration bill is considered.
鈥淒emocrats won鈥檛 settle for half measures,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “We鈥檙e going to kill the slush fund permanently and we are going to bury it and bury it deep.鈥�
GOP senators has also before leaving for a Memorial Day recess two weeks ago. They returned to Washington this week saying they wanted more information from the administration about the future of the fund, which could potentially go to Trump supporters who beat police and .
The Justice Department said Monday it pausing implementation of the fund. And then acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in testimony Tuesday that it was being dropped altogether.
鈥淲e are not moving forward with the fund, period,鈥� Blanche said.
Immigration bill caught in settlement uproar
Caught in the middle is legislation that would fund Trump鈥檚 immigration enforcement agencies for three years. Republicans abruptly left town May 21 without passing it after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap the fund or scale it back, forcing Republicans to go on the record for or against it and endangering the money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
Returning to Washington on Monday evening, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wasn鈥檛 sure if the immigration spending bill would move this week. 鈥淭o be determined,鈥� he told reporters.
He offered little more clarity after Blanche’s assurances.
鈥淚t鈥檚 still a work in progress,” he told reporters.
Republican senators leaving a lunch meeting Tuesday also said it was still unclear if it would move.
鈥淲e’ll just have to wait and see,鈥� Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters. If senators are satisfied with Blanche’s testimony, 鈥渨e’ll probably proceed quickly,鈥� he said.
Standoff comes after surprise announcement
The comes after Trump announced the fund with no heads up to lawmakers as part of a settlement to resolve his over the leak of his tax returns. When word of the settlement broke, the Senate was already navigating tricky passage of the immigration legislation with an 鈥� including for Trump鈥檚 ballroom project.
Furious, Senate Republicans jettisoned the White House security money from the bill and made clear they would not pass the legislation at all unless the White House made major changes to the settlement.
鈥淚 do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,鈥� Thune told reporters Monday, referring to the fund.
The Justice Department said it would comply with a ruling Friday from who temporarily halted the fund for two weeks. The judge scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend her order.
Republicans issue rare ultimatum to DOJ
The outrage over the fund at a closed-door meeting between senators and Blanche that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas described on a recent episode of his podcast as 鈥渙ne of the roughest meetings I鈥檝e seen in my entire time in the Senate.鈥�
GOP senators had been discussing several ways that they could curb the fund, including limiting who can receive payouts, changing the makeup of the commission in charge of settlement decisions, adding some sort of judicial review for applicants or scrapping the fund altogether.
Also complicating matters is Trump鈥檚 campaign-year push to defeat GOP lawmakers whom he sees as disloyal, including some of Thune鈥檚 most reliable Republican votes in the narrow 53-47 Senate.
and both lost reelection bids in May after Trump endorsed their primary opponents, and it鈥檚 unclear how supportive they鈥檒l be of the president鈥檚 agenda going forward.
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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
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