Republicans defeat amendment targeting Trump's anti-weaponization fund

WASHINGTON, DC: Senate Republicans on Thursday, June 4, defeated Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's sponsored amendment, which was brought to prohibit the Justice Department from establishing a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.

Notably, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers earlier this week that the administration would abandon the controversial fund, meant to compensate those who were wrongly targeted by the Biden administration, by weaponizing the legal system.

Proposal to prohibit weaponization fund defeated

The proposal, which sought to amend a $70 billion budget reconciliation package funding immigration enforcement, failed in a narrow 49-50 vote.

Every Democrat voted in favor of the amendment.

Sen Michael Bennet (D-Colo) missed the vote, though his absence ultimately did not affect the outcome. Democrats would still have needed one additional Republican vote to secure passage.

The vote remained open for nearly three hours as Republican senators huddled behind closed doors to discuss potential changes to the reconciliation package, including measures that would have barred the Trump administration from establishing the anti-weaponization fund.

Notably, Sens Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), and Jon Husted (R-Ohio) broke with their party and backed Schumer’s amendment.

GOP critics opposed Chuck Schumer's fund block

Notably, Bill Cassidy had also planned to vote for the amendment, but he was assured by the Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) that he would be able to amend the bill to bar the anti-weaponization fund from being established.

Even Republican critics of the proposed anti-weaponization fund, including Sens Thom Tillis (NC) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), voted against Schumer’s amendment.

Schumer’s amendment sought to permanently block the Trump administration from creating the nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, a proposal that critics on both sides of the aisle have derided as a “slush fund.”

The measure required only a simple majority to pass.

Had it been approved, the amendment would have sent the budget reconciliation package back to the Senate Judiciary Committee with instructions to return it within three days with revisions aimed at “safeguard[ing] the Department of Justice from partisan political influence and corruption.”

“We are not moving forward with the fund. Period,” Todd Blanche, earlier this week, assured a House appropriations subcommittee and would not attempt to revive it in the future.