By Lindsay Wise, Richard Rubin and Siobhan Hughes

WASHINGTON -- Republican senators facing tough re-election fights this fall sided with Democrats in a vote to kill President Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, but the effort to write its demise into law appeared set to fail as a marathon session of votes continued.

The internal GOP fight over the fund brought Senate floor action to a halt for several hours Thursday, slowing but not stopping the expected passage of a $70 billion immigration-enforcement bill that has been a priority for Trump and the Republicans. While many Senate Republicans oppose the anti-weaponization fund, few appeared willing to insist on language to end it as a condition for supporting the immigration bill.

Three Republicans -- Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Jon Husted of Ohio -- voted for a Democratic motion to send the entire immigration-enforcement bill back to committee, with instructions to add language that would eliminate the anti-weaponization fund. All three are all in competitive midterm races, contests in which they will need votes from Trump supporters but also independents and swing voters who want to see them push back against the president.

Other GOP opponents of the fund who aren't on this fall's ballot -- including Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Curtis of Utah -- voted to keep the immigration bill moving. The Democratic effort failed, with 49 in favor and 50 opposed.

Senate Republican leaders had hoped that statements earlier this week from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche disavowing the fund would be sufficient to quell the concerns from lawmakers. Trump, however, has declined to confirm that he considered the fund dead -- saying he would have to ask lawyers -- while also praising the fund.

"If Blanche says that this is largely inoperative, why not use this moment to codify that?" Tillis said, warning that failing to do so would expose Republicans in close races to criticism.

Curtis said he hadn't liked the fund since the beginning and "was somewhat placated with it being nearly dead." But he was hoping for a chance to make sure the fund was "dead, dead."

Curtis said he would consider Democratic amendments case-by-case, but if they really are intended to kill the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, he wouldn't support them. "I can't go there," he said. "We need to fund those departments."

Republicans were working Thursday afternoon to defeat a series of Democratic amendments and pass the immigration-enforcement bill later Thursday or early Friday. It was still possible that senators would vote on more amendments related to the anti-weaponization fund or the government's related decision to end tax audits of Trump and his businesses.

Tillis has said he won't support the $70 billion immigration-enforcement legislation unless it included language to kill the fund, and said it was his intuition that there were enough Republicans to insist upon such language. But there aren't yet three other Republican senators who have committed to that position, and without that, Tillis will fall short.

Cassidy and Tillis are pushing for language that would kill the fund, instead of relying on promises from administration officials that it won't go forward. Cassidy filed amendments to undo the Justice Department's pledge to end tax audits of Trump, his family and his businesses.

Tillis, a frequent target of Trump's barbs, isn't running for re-election and is retiring after this Congress. Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, lost his primary in May after Trump endorsed a challenger.

The objections to the anti-weaponization fund from Democrats and many Republicans center on concerns that taxpayer money would be used to compensate Trump's allies and could reward people who had assaulted police officers during the Jan. 6 riot.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said the fund "won't die until we permanently ban it by law, not by language, not by verbal promises, which can just evaporate, but by law."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) said he wasn't surprised that the effort to kill the fund appeared likely to fail, citing Trump's power over the GOP. "There's only one rule here," he said. "In the end he gets anything he wants. But the idea that this is permanently dead is ridiculous."

The Senate voted 15-84 to reject a Tillis amendment that would have redirected money from the anti-weaponization fund to the Justice Department's antifraud division. Twelve Republican senators voted yes along with three moderate Democrats, in a sign of how deep opposition to the fund runs within the GOP conference. Democratic opponents said the Tillis amendment would just give the Justice Department a way to go after their constituents and states.

Heading into the midterms, some GOP lawmakers have shown more willingness to cross the president. Republican opposition already had forced leaders to remove a $1 billion provision from the immigration-enforcement package that would have funded security-related upgrades linked to the new White House ballroom championed by Trump.

Congress didn't create the anti-weaponization fund. It came about as a result of Trump's decision to sue the government over the leak of his tax returns then ultimately withdraw the suit in exchange for the establishment of the fund. The fund was created in writing -- in an agreement signed by a Trump lawyer, a Justice Department official and the chief executive officer of the Internal Revenue Service. It was styled as the settlement of the suit that Trump filed over the leak of his returns.

Facing questions from Democrats in a hearing earlier this week, Blanche didn't say that he would put the end of the fund in writing.

Republicans, who control the Senate 53-47, are relying on a fast-track budget procedure to advance the immigration-enforcement bill with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes usually required in the chamber. Democrats have refused to vote to fund ICE or the Border Patrol without an overhaul of immigration-enforcement policies. The fast-track procedure allows the Republicans to get around the Democratic opposition and helps them lock in funding in case Democrats win back partial or full control of Congress in November's election.

But the strategy requires Republicans in the Senate to bat down amendments and remain largely united around a final version.

Write to Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com, Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com and Siobhan Hughes at Siobhan.hughes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 04, 2026 19:18 ET (23:18 GMT)

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