Republicans expected their filibuster-proof effort to fund immigration enforcement agencies through President Trump’s remaining time in office to be an easy lift, but the $70 billion bill has stalled multiple times over unrelated, politically charged issues.
Senate GOP leaders punted on a plan to pass the bill before Mr. Trump’s self-imposed June 1 deadline. They needed time to work through an intraparty rebellion over a $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund the Justice Department had just announced as part of a settlement with Mr. Trump.
Two weeks later, they thought they had knocked down enough of their internal roadblocks to pass the bill and teed up a Thursday marathon voting session leading to a final vote.
The “vote-a-rama,” as it is called in Washington, quickly went off the rails.
It took three hours for Republicans to muster up enough votes to quash a Democratic motion that would have effectively killed the bill.
Several Democratic proposals divided Republicans — as did a GOP amendment to add the SAVE America Act amid a renewed push from Mr. Trump to crack down on mail-in ballots.
The budget reconciliation process Republicans are using to skirt a Democratic filibuster over funding the president’s deportation force allows senators to offer unlimited motions and amendments to the bill.
The vote-a-rama was still going Thursday evening and was not expected to conclude until late that night or the next day.
And it was not guaranteed that Republicans would have enough votes to pass the bill, but a successful outcome was more likely than not.
The House, which had been planning to take up the bill after Senate passage, decided not to stick around and find out. GOP leaders sent members home early for the weekend, pushing any action on the measure to at least Monday evening.
Most of the votes came from Democrats using the rare opportunity to force votes to score political points.
A few came from Republicans.
The three-hour vote, the first in the series, was on a motion from Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer to refer the bill back to committee with instructions to add language ensuring the Anti-Weaponization Fund cannot be revived.
“Do you support Donald Trump’s $2 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund, or do you want to protect the American people and their paychecks by outlawing this criminal, crony cash-back program permanently?” the New York Democrat asked Republicans.
Motions to refer a bill back to committee are typically viewed as an effort to kill the legislation, but several Republicans waffled amid their shared interest in codifying the death of the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
Sens. Susan M. Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska — considered the three most vulnerable Republicans running for reelection this fall — supported Democrats’ motion, which was ultimately defeated, 49-50.
If Republicans did not add some language nixing the fund, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he would vote against the bill on final passage.
He offered an amendment that sought to ban the fund and give the Justice Department roughly the same amount of money, $1.7 billion, to spend on fraud prevention and enforcement.
Eleven other Republicans and three Democrats voted for Mr. Tillis’ amendment, but it failed, 15-84.
Democrats opposing it argued the Justice Department could still use the anti-fraud money to target political enemies and blue states.
“Taking one slush fund and eliminating it and then creating a new slush fund, still under the control of the attorney general, is not the way to go,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, Oregon Democrat.
Other unrelated political pitfalls plagued the bill.
Senate Republicans had initially included $1 billion for the Secret Service in the bill, $220 million of which the agency said would be used to secure the ballroom and broader East Wing Modernization Project. They dropped it because of internal objections.
Sen. Mark R. Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, offered an amendment seeking to ban an individual from acting as Director of National Intelligence while they are simultaneously serving as the head of another federal agency.
The proposal was a direct shot at Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency whom Mr. Trump tapped this week to serve as acting DNI.
Democrats also offered amendments on affordability issues, such as housing, as they seek to make that the primary issue in the midterm elections this fall.
None of the amendments passed.
Republicans also offered up a failed show vote for the president on the SAVE America Act, the party’s election integrity bill.
Mr. Trump made a renewed case for the bill on Thursday, citing California’s late surge of mail-in voting as an effort by Democrats to cheat.
“The Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote,” he posted on Truth Social. “I hope the Republicans are watching so that they can finally pass the SAVE America Act!”
The initial SAVE America Act just required proof of citizenship to register to vote, photo ID to cast a ballot and provisions forcing states to clean up their voter rolls using a federal citizenship database.
Mr. Trump has pushed for a version that also bans states from automatically sending out mail-in ballots to all registered voters. The amendment included that proposal.
Four Republicans — Mr. Tillis, Ms. Collins, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — joined all Democrats in opposition.
Ms. Collins cast her 10,000th consecutive Senate vote during the vote-a-rama, providing a brief moment of bipartisan celebration to the otherwise intense debate. She is still a few hundred votes shy of breaking the chamber record for the longest voting streak.
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