US: Senate Vote-A-Rama Expected On Immigration Enforcement Bill This Evening

The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote today to open debate on the GOP's USD$70 billion reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement agencies through the end of President Donald Trump's term. Debate will be followed by a 'vote-a-rama' on the package, but no time has been announced yet.

• Movement on the package comes after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed in testimony to Congress yesterday that the Department of Justice is nixing Trump’s “anti-weaponisation” fund. 
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters after speaking to Blanche, “I think his statements are going to be very definitive, very clear, and create the certainty [needed] for us to proceed.” Thune added it was “correct” to assume the fund is now dead.
• The reconciliation package needs 50 votes to advance through procedural votes and defeat a raft of Democratic amendments. With the fund quashed, Thune is expected to have sufficient support to push the bill through, keeping alive the possibility that the GOP could attempt a third reconciliation bill.
• With Democrats expected to regain control of at least one chamber of Congress in November, the five-month sprint to the midterms is likely to be the final chance for the GOP to pass a partisan tax and spending package. A third reconconcilliation bill has been touted as a potential vehicle for additional defence funding, including an Iran supplemental, but passing any legislation through an increasingly factured Republican conference will be execptionally difficult for Republican leaders.