Senate drama: Republicans wrestle over Schumer amendment on 'anti-weaponization' fund |
Senate drama: Republicans wrestle over Schumer amendment on ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
Senate Republicans are wresting over how to handle a Democratic amendment that would ban the Department of Justice from implementing its “anti-weaponization” fund.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) offered the amendment to the GOP budget reconciliation package, causing work to stall on the floor after several Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.) battled over how to vote on the proposal.
A group of Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.) and vulnerable Sens. Jon Husted (Ohio) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska) gathered around Cassidy, who recently lost a primary to a Trump-backed challenger, on the floor to debate the matter.
It appeared that Husted and Sullivan were holding back their votes while waiting to see what Cassidy would do.
A Senate GOP aide, however, said Cassidy “is the problem.”
GOP senators say that Cassidy and other skeptics of Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund want to include language in the budget reconciliation bill to prohibit the administration from setting up such a compensation fund at any point in the future.
But Thune and other Republican leaders are worried that any amendment to the bill to block the future creation of the implementation fund could create a parliamentary pitfall for the broader bill or make it tougher to pass in the House.
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