Washington — Senate Republicans will meet on Tuesday to discuss next steps after the Justice Department announced this You will comply with the court order Halting a $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate political allies of President Donald Trump.
Republican senators who They revolted against settlement Before leaving for Memorial Day weekend two weeks ago, they said they wanted more information from the administration about the future of the fund, which will likely go to Trump supporters who beat up police and… Attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Meanwhile, Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with the plan at all, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
And in the middle is legislation that would fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies for three years. Republicans abruptly left town without passing it after Democrats said they would introduce amendments to eliminate or reduce the governance fund, forcing Republicans to side for or against it and putting money for Immigration, Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol at risk.
Upon his return to Washington on Monday evening, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was unsure whether the immigration spending bill would move this week.
“That will be determined,” he told reporters.
the An unusual encounter This comes after Trump announced the fund without giving any warning to lawmakers as part of a settlement to resolve his issue Lawsuit against the IRS Because his tax returns were leaked. When news of the settlement broke, the Senate was navigating a difficult passage of immigration legislation by resolution Adding a billion dollars to White House security costs – Including the Trump Hall project.
Furious, Senate Republicans eliminated White House security funds from the bill and made clear they would not pass the legislation at all unless the White House made major changes to the settlement.
“I think the best way to handle it is for the administration to decide to close it themselves,” Thune told reporters on Monday, referring to the fund.
He said Republicans will have a better idea of how to proceed after they meet for their weekly conference for lunch on Tuesday.
The Justice Department said it would abide by Friday’s ruling US District Judge Leonie Brinkema Which paused the fund for two weeks. The judge set a hearing for June 12 to argue whether to extend her order.
The ministry said in a statement that it strongly opposes the ruling but will abide by it.
Republican senators were not satisfied. They said Monday evening that they need more details from the administration about what will happen after that deadline before deciding on next steps.
“It’s very clear that the president has to say explicitly that there will be no arm fund,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Lankford said Trump administration officials “need to say what they actually mean.”
“They should say we’re putting this whole thing aside,” Lankford said.
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said that if “the settlement is fully withdrawn, I’m satisfied. But I haven’t heard anyone say that.”
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said the administration already has to abide by the court’s decision, “and that’s in the Constitution. I should know more about their position.”
“Right now, the reconciliation bill looks like a broken arm with bones sticking out,” Kennedy said. “There will be no action this week, in my opinion, unless we have some decision on the armament calculation.”
The box got angry It reached its peak last month In a closed meeting between senators and Acting Prosecutor Todd Blanche This is what Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas described in a recent episode of his podcast as “one of the most difficult meetings I have seen in my entire time in the Senate.”
GOP senators have been discussing several ways they could rein in the funding, including limiting who can receive payments, changing the makeup of the committee responsible for settlement decisions, adding some type of judicial review of applicants or eliminating the fund altogether.
Amid the backlash, a person familiar with the matter, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking, said Monday that Trump is reconsidering moving forward with the fund. But the president has not publicly announced what he intends to do.
Complicating matters further is Trump’s campaign quest to defeat GOP lawmakers he views as disloyal, including some of Thune’s most reliable Republican votes in the narrow 53-47 Senate. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn from Texas Both lost their re-election bids in May after Trump endorsed their primary opponents, and it is unclear how much they will support the president’s agenda going forward.
“I think it’s difficult to separate anything that’s going on here from what’s going on in the political atmosphere around us,” Thune said before the Senate left town.
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Associated Press writers Joy Cappelletti and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.