Senate Republicans are seeking to pass a special budget reconciliation bill that would provide $175 billion to secure the southern border and $150 billion to beef up national defense.
If the Senate and House adopt the resolution, which Graham plans to mark up Wednesday morning, it would allow Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to bring a reconciliation package to the Senate floor focused on border security, energy reform and defense spending that would be immune from a Democratic filibuster.
The legislation would increase annual spending by $85.5 billion and be fully paid for by $85.5 billion in budgetary offsets.
Graham did not reveal what spending cuts would be used to pay for the proposal, leaving it for Republican leaders and committee chairman to decide at a later date.
The proposal calls for finishing the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and upgrading technology for ground and aerial support to secure the border.
It also calls for increasing the number of detention beds to hold migrants arrested in the United States and to increase the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to “conduct mass detention and removal of criminal illegal aliens,” according to a summary provided by Graham’s office.
Funding would go toward increasing the number of Border Patrol agents to “regain operational control of the border” and assistant U.S. attorneys to prosecute violent crime, organized crime and immigration-related offenses. It would also fund additional immigration judges to clear the backlogs in immigration courts.
House Republicans hope to unveil their own budget measure, with members in the lower chamber pushing for an extension of tax cuts to be included in the first major bill Congress advances under Trump.
The Hill’s Alex Bolton has more here.
