Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., favors passage during a long day today of a reconciliation bill with focus on funding for immigration enforcement.
The legislation was part of a “vote-a-rama” that included a series of amendments, including a proposal to block creation of a controversial $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who claim they were wrongfully prosecuted or investigated.
Capito, the fourth ranking Republican in the Senate, expressed high confidence during public appearances today that the “anti-weaponization fund” is already dead and will not be pursued in the future.
The senator said she is very confident in the word of acting Attorney General Todd Blanch, who testified under oath that the Department of Justice is not moving forward with the fund.
“I’m very confident that the acting attorney general not just gave his word, but was very definitive in his language, that it’s dead, it won’t come back, they’ll not be pursuing it in the future. So I am very confident that that’s the last that we’ll see of that,” Capito said on MetroNews Talkline.
President Trump this week declined to close the door on the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, telling reporters in Washington, D.C., that he did not know if the fund was dead and would “have to ask the lawyers.” He continued to defend the initiative, calling it “a beautiful thing.”
“I love it. I think it’s so important,” he said.
While some proposed Senate amendments would codify a ban on the fund to ensure it cannot return, Capito said she views such proposals with skepticism.
Capito said she believes such amendments can be used to derail major legislation and prefers to focus on the main purpose of legislation before lawmakers today: funding for Homeland Security, ICE and the Border Patrol.
“I think what we need to do is send a bill that gets to the core issue, which is the funding of Homeland Security, which is the funding of our ICE and our Border patrol and our law enforcement efforts,” she said on Talkline.
She added, “I think a lot of times these amendments come up and they’re really just meant to derail the whole, the major bill. So I’m going to look at those with an eye of skepticism.”
The Senate is considering a $72 billion budget reconciliation package to fund federal immigration enforcement agencies through fiscal 2029. With reconciliation, the bill requires only a simple majority to bypass the 60-vote Senate filibuster, aiming to unblock previous Democratic funding freezes.
The package provides about $38 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $26 billion for Customs and Border Protection to sustain and expand deportation, detention and border operations.
A revised version of the bill dropped language that originally included $1 billion for Secret Service security upgrades, including renovations for President Trump’s planned White House ballroom.
Capito, in a call with West Virginia reporters, called it a “very streamlined” bill.
“We’re trying to do is something that is so common sense — and we should have done months ago, but we couldn’t because the Democrats and Schumer just will not do this. They will not fund the Homeland Security law enforcement portions of Border Patrol, and ICE,” Capito said.