Senate votes 50-48 to fund ICE without Democrats using budget reconciliation

The Senate voted 50-48 at approximately 3:36 a.m. on April 23, 2026, to adopt a fiscal year 2026 budget resolution after a vote-a-rama that stretched nearly six hours through the night. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced the 58-page resolution, which instructs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee to each draft reconciliation legislation by May 15 authorizing up to $70 billion in new spending over 10 years.

The $70 billion figure is designed to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Customs and Border Protection parts of the Department of Homeland Security for approximately three and a half years. Republicans said the final reconciliation bill would consolidate the two committees' work into a single filibuster-proof measure they can pass without any Democratic votes.

Budget reconciliation is a procedure in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 that allows Congress to pass legislation with direct budgetary consequences by simple majority vote, rather than the 60-vote supermajority normally required to advance bills past a Senate filibuster. A budget resolution first sets the parameters — here, a $70 billion spending ceiling — and then instructs committees to write the actual funding legislation within those limits.

The procedure is constrained by the Byrd Rule, a Senate rule named for former Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) that prohibits reconciliation bills from containing provisions that are merely incidental to the budget. Republicans will need to draft the ICE and CBP funding bill carefully to survive Byrd Rule challenges from Democrats, who can force the Senate parliamentarian to strike provisions that don't meet the test.

A vote-a-rama is a Senate floor practice in which senators can offer unlimited amendments to a budget resolution, and the chamber must vote on each one in rapid succession with no debate time limits. On the night of April 22-23, senators voted on dozens of amendments over nearly six hours before the final 50-48 vote. Democrats used the vote-a-rama to force Republicans on record about specific immigration policies, including amendments related to deportation priorities and detention conditions.

The vote-a-rama procedure itself carries no legislative force — none of the individual amendments adopted during the session become law. But the recorded votes create a political record that both parties plan to use in the 2026 midterm campaigns. Democrats designed several amendments specifically to split moderate Republicans from the MAGA wing of the party.

Two Republican senators voted against the budget resolution, joining all 48 Democrats in opposition. Sen. LMLisa Murkowski (R-AK) has repeatedly raised concerns about federal spending and deficit expansion throughout the 119th Congress. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) opposes deficit-financed spending on ideological grounds and has voted against every major spending increase regardless of party support.

Their defection left the vote at exactly 50-48, with two senators absent. Vice President JD Vance would have cast a tie-breaking vote if any additional Republican had defected, but the margin held. Graham said after the vote that he was proud of what Republicans accomplished.

The Department of Homeland Security has operated without a congressional appropriation since mid-February 2026, when funding ran out after months of partisan deadlock. Senate Democrats refused to support any DHS funding bill without major structural changes to how ICE conducts enforcement operations. The DHS shutdown closed most non-essential agency functions, though emergency authority kept border enforcement running at reduced capacity.

Republicans argued that Democrats were holding border security hostage to partisan demands. Democrats argued that they couldn't support funding an agency whose enforcement tactics they considered unlawful. The standoff made a bipartisan DHS appropriations bill functionally impossible, leading Republicans to turn to reconciliation as a way to fund ICE and CBP without Democratic consent.

The budget resolution now goes to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) must shepherd it through. The House Judiciary Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee must each pass reconciliation legislation by May 15. After both chambers pass their respective bills, the House and Senate will need to reconcile any differences before sending a final measure to President Trump.

Trump has set a self-imposed June 1 deadline for the finished bill. That leaves roughly five weeks from the April 23 vote for committees to draft legislation, hold hearings, pass the bills through both chambers, and complete a conference process — an extremely compressed timeline for a $70 billion spending package.

This reconciliation process is the second time Republicans in the 119th Congress have used the procedure for major legislation. The first was the One Big Beautiful Budget Act, which passed earlier in 2026 and included significant tax cuts and ICE funding increases. Using reconciliation a second time in one Congress is procedurally possible but requires a separate budget resolution for each bill.

The dual-track use of reconciliation shrinks the time available for floor debate on non-reconciliation legislation and concentrates enormous policy-making authority in the Budget Committees of both chambers. Critics argue it further centralizes legislative power in party leadership at the expense of rank-and-file members.