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House Republicans are reportedly frustrated by the Senate GOP’s move to kick the can down the road instead of voting on a budget reconciliation package pertaining to immigration enforcement this week.
“The Senate’s demonstrated once again that they don’t even know how to get their work done properly,” Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said, according to The Hill.
President Donald Trump is backing Donalds for Florida governor.
“It’s gutless, and I’m very frustrated,” Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said, according to the outlet. “They need to work. They didn’t want to work …. The Senate ought to be calling on the leadership over there. If the House did it, I’d be doing it too.”
SENATE GOP ERUPTS OVER TRUMP DOJ ‘ANTI-WEAPONIZATION’ FUND, PUNTS ICE, BORDER PATROL FUNDING
The US Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I’m frustrated that it’s not done, but hopeful that they can finish it up when they come back, I guess, and we can get this done,” Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., said, according to The Hill.
Digital reached out to the White House.
President Donald Trump indicated on Truth Social in April that he wanted a bill on his desk by June 1 to provide funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol.
The Justice Department recently announced an “Anti-weaponization Fund,” noting in a press release “that as a part of the settlement agreement in President Donald J. Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, the Attorney General established ‘The Anti-Weaponization Fund’ to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”
TRUMP ADMIN PUSHES BACK ON ‘SLUSH FUND’ ATTACKS AGAINST ANTI-WEAPONIZATION FUND AND LAYS OUT WHO QUALIFIES
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Senate Republicans on Thursday.
Sources told Digital that over two dozen Republicans demanded answers from Blanche on what kind of guardrails could be put into the fund, and specifically if those convicted for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, riots could be excluded.
There have been discussions of including those guardrails into the reconciliation package, given that the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the DOJ, is a major part of the process.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department told Digital that Blanche had a “healthy discussion on the settlement.”
“He made clear that the Anti-Weaponization Fund announced Monday has nothing to do with reconciliation. Indeed, not a single dime from the money the president is seeking in reconciliation would go toward anything having to do with the fund,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to work with the Senate to get critical reconciliation funds approved.”
President Donald Trump arrives at the commencement ceremony on Cadet Memorial Field at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., on May 20, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Trump declared in a Friday Truth Social post, “I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced Anti-Weaponization Fund to go forward. I could have settled my case, including the illegal release of my Tax Returns and the equally illegal BREAK IN of Mar-a-Lago, for an absolute fortune. Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, JUSTICE!”
Digital’s Alex Miller and Channel’s Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
