Republicans have hit a hard time on border funding as divisiveness threatens the way forward

The party’s strategy of running legislation through Congress and bypassing the Senate filibuster has become a dumping ground for Republican legislative priorities throughout the year.

Now, with Democrats refusing to fund immigration jobs, Republicans are re-reading the budget reconciliation package. The hard part will be getting enough of the GOP on the same page to craft a bill that can pass and survive the tough rules that underpin the process.

Republicans used the same process to pass President Donald Trump’s “big, good bill” last year. It’s a time-consuming, labor-intensive legislative process that’s almost imploding and likely to fail unless the Senate and House agree on what they want to put together.

SENATE PASSES BILL TO PAY MORE DHS AFTER HOUSE GOP HUMBLE

Trump officially supported using reconciliation again this week as a way to counter Democrats’ refusal to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as Congress moves closer to ending the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Trump demanded that Republicans get the bill to his desk by June 1.

“We’re going to work as fast and as focused as we can to defund our Border Agents and ICE, and the Radical Left Democrats will not be able to stop us,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Still, Republicans are looking at reconciliation as a vehicle to deal with fraud, affordability, Trump’s tax authorities, additional tax provisions, health care, funding for the Iran war, increased spending on agriculture, and election integrity measures in the months since the passage of the “big, good bill.”

DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COSTS FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS CLOSE

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., said Republicans must “keep our expectations real.” (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., warned that if reconciliation is to work — especially given the limited time lawmakers have to begin and complete the process — Republicans must “keep our expectations realistic.”

“Our idea about the case that creates all of this was to keep that thing as small and focused as possible, and that increases the speed at which we can do it and the support of it,” Thune said.

“Perhaps there will be efforts to add things,” he continued. “There are things out there, obviously, that most of us are interested in. But in a reconciliation vehicle like this – which we have to rush, as the president said – it is probably not something that can contribute to all these other problems.”

Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Lindsey Graham, RS.C., told voters at an event this week in South Carolina that she is looking at two new reconciliation packages, which would ease concerns about packing all of the GOP’s priorities into one big bill.

GOP PARTS WITH ‘S— SANDWICH’ AS ALL EYES TURN IN HOUSE TO KEEP DHS SHUTDOWN

Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., goes to the Senate floor to receive votes after meeting behind closed doors with other Republicans on the Homeland Security budget summary, at the Capitol in Washington, March 26, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

“We want to do it quickly – ICE, Border Patrol – fund us as much as you can, for many years,” Graham said. “There’s another coming. I just made news. There’s another coming in the fall, which will go after the fraud.”

House Republicans spent their latest policy rollback earlier this year pushing for so-called “reconciliation 2.0,” preparing to load the package with several provisions that would take time and fight for support in the Senate — where strict guidelines can kill proposals outright if they don’t comply.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), which has long sought a second reconciliation bill, also wants to add proposals that address insolvency concerns.

“We support the pursuit of funding for military readiness and Homeland Security through this legislative process, while simultaneously supporting the president’s agenda to deliver lower costs for working families,” the RSC Steering Committee said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Some Republicans also want to include the latest policy battle: the American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE). Voter ID and citizenship verification legislation has no chance of passing the Senate given the combined opposition of the Democratic Alliance.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM

And it’s unlikely to survive the Senate’s reconciliation rules, which only allow for provisions that directly affect spending.

“I think we have to look slowly at this reconciliation bill,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital. “It should be aimed at funding ICE for 10 years — I think that’s the first thing for us. If we could get into the margins of the SAVE Act, that would be great, but a member of parliament won’t let us do the SAVE Act. That’s impossible.”

Some of the bill’s biggest supporters in the House GOP admit that adding the SAVE Act to reconciliation would be a challenge — especially because they would like to keep the bill intact and pass it through the Senate.

“Look, it’s time for them to do a speaking tour and a filibuster, and let’s make this thing happen,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, RS.C.. “The American people are watching – piecing it together to try to get a piece.”