Republicans returned to Capitol Hill on Monday facing a cascade of crises of President Donald Trump's making, and a prominent Beltway insider delivered a blunt diagnosis for the party's predicament.
Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman described Senate Republicans as "absolutely screwed" and stuck in a "very bad jam" over the anti-weaponization fund specifically, with the administration failing to send language that could win over GOP holdouts.
"These are critical weeks for Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress, with just over five months left until Election Day. Trump has been bogged down in peace negotiations with Iran. The conflict remains at a stalemate somewhere between war and peace. Trump blames ‘Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans’ for not understanding that ‘it will all work out well in the end,'" Punchbowl News wrote.
Republicans hope to launch a vote-a-rama Wednesday night and muscle the immigration reconciliation bill through by Thursday morning, the outlet reported. Two provisions have badly snarled that timeline.
Security funding for Trump's planned White House ballroom was already attached to the package, costing support among lawmakers worried about electoral blowback. The Senate parliamentarian ruled last month that the $1 billion provision violated the Byrd Rule, forcing Republicans to redraft.
The anti-weaponization fund has proven to be an even larger hurdle, with some Senate Republicans refusing to advance the bill until the White House places guardrails around the money, which the administration has shown little interest in doing. Democrats are preparing what Punchbowl called a "massive amendment blitz" to force public votes on the fund.
“Senate Democrats will launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proclaimed Monday. “And no matter what Republicans do, we will force them to vote on it.”