As Reed & Dems Prioritize Affordability for Families & Fight Corruption, GOP Gifts Trump a Massive ICE Slush Fund & Rejects Lowering Costs

WASHINGTON, DC – As President Trump’s reckless policies and disastrous war with Iran drives up costs for Americans, Senate Republicans continue to ignore the affordability crisis they have exacerbated and instead rubber-stamp billions more for unchecked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to build more mega-detention centers and carry out operations with zero new reforms or oversight. At about 5:00 a.m. this morning, on a near party line vote of 52-47 -- all Senate Republicans but one, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) -- voted in favor of injecting an additional $69.5 billion into President Trump’s untargeted, mass-deportation agenda. This new federal funding comes on top of nearly $170 billion in U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and immigration enforcement funding approved by Republicans last year. U.S. Senator Jack Reed opposed the Trump plan because Congress must prioritize effective solutions to make America more affordable and safer to start restoring economic stability, fiscal discipline, and transparency and accountability. Instead, 52 Republicans rubber-stamped a bloated, unchecked ICE bureaucracy that is out of control and has a budget far beyond its needs. Reed noted that President Trump's policies are raising costs and making it harder for Americans to make ends meet. Senator Reed and Democrats offered a series of concrete amendments -- real solutions to lower costs, build homes , protect health care, and help more Americans feed their families, lower child care costs, and make their mortgage or rental payments. Senate Republicans blocked every single one. “President Trump is icing out affordability, transparency, and fiscal responsibility. ICE is flush with more cash than it can spend while Americans across the country are struggling to afford housing, food, and health care,” said Senator Reed. “The Trump tariff regime is driving up prices and making life more expensive. Instead of focusing on affordability and building more homes, Senate Republicans want to build more mega-ICE warehouses, even in communities that don’t want them. They are so blinded by ideology and President Trump’s culture wars that they are neglecting the American people in order to give another massive lump sum to an agency that already has more money than the combined budgets of all other federal law enforcement agencies. Democrats want to right-size ICE and ensure it is accountable, not just allow an unchecked, armed unit of poorly trained agents to run amok in our communities and rip older Americans from their homes at gunpoint without a warrant .” This $69.5 billion Republicans approved early this morning comes with virtually no strings attached. And Republicans continue to block strong oversight and needed reforms to prevent the abuses Americans have already witnessed, such as the killing of Americans and the repeated violation of Americans' civil rights. “Donald Trump cynically paid lip service to ‘draining the swamp.’ Instead, he is draining your bank account and draining taxpayer funds in unprecedented ways that allow massive waste, fraud, and abuse,” said Reed. “ President Trump told Americans he wasn’t thinking about their financial needs “even a little bit” while negotiating with Iran over the war and gas prices. This misplaced bill is further proof that Americans’ economic well-being is of no concern to President Trump and his enablers.” While ICE has historically been funded at nearly $10 billion annually, Congressional Republicans used a party-line budget reconciliation measure to give ICE an extra $75 billion in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed last summer. And last night, Senate Republicans blindly approved another $69.5 billion for immigration enforcement and other operations through 2029, at the expense of more pressing priorities, such as affordable housing, health care, and lowering gas and food costs. “Republicans are tacitly approving another Trump slush fund. This isn’t a long-term investment in border security, it is essentially a $70 billion, three-year slush fund that sorely lacks oversight and accountability. It is a form of institutional self-harm that tacitly enables President Trump and his inner circle to continue wasting taxpayer money on things like luxury private jets, vanity commercials, new gold-plated SUVs that are bought with no bid contracts, and other blatant examples of waste that still have gone unpunished by Republicans. This is government grift and waste masquerading as immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, Republicans are taking zero steps to actually solve the problem. They have no plan to improve border security long-term. Instead of reducing the debt, Republicans are adding to it at an alarming rate. The American people cannot afford this type of hyper-partisan, fiscal malpractice,” said Reed. Republicans also rejected an amendment barring the Trump Administration from creating a $1.8 billion MAGA grievance slush fund that could be doled out at a later date to President Trump's political allies and inner circle . “Senate Republicans foolishly kept President Trump’s self-dealing slush fund alive and retroactive IRS immunity for the president and his family members fully intact. This is a brazenly corrupt, self-dealing scheme that should be widely condemned, not allowed to exist in a zombie state. But instead of protecting taxpayers, Senate Republicans are allowing President Trump to flout the law. And he continues to abuse government power, mismanage the economy, infringe on people’s rights and mislead the American public,” said Reed. The Republican reconciliation bill now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives where Republicans control the majority and are expected to take it up next week.