By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a three-year budget plan that would pave the way for Congress to consider an additional $70 billion for immigration enforcement activities by federal agents.
The House voted 215-211, with no Democrats supporting it. House Speaker Mike Johnson held the vote open for more than five hours as he worked to get enough of his fellow Republicans to embrace the measure. Some, from farm states, were holding out for a future vote on expanding sales of gasoline blended with ethanol.
The Senate approved the plan on April 23. With the House going along, it will be up to Republicans in both chambers to put together details of the $70-billion proposal and win passage before sending it to President Donald Trump to sign into law.
Republicans are hoping to do so in May and will be using a special, rarely used procedure that allows them to steer the legislation through the Senate without any support from Democrats.
Republicans used the same procedure last year to ram through around $130 billion in funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agencies – a huge boost that Trump requested to carry out his massive migrant deportation campaign.
Republicans have resisted Democrats’ attempts to constrain ICE and Border Patrol operations in U.S. cities that have triggered protests, especially after two U.S. citizens were shot dead by federal agents this year in Minneapolis.
By the end of this week a series of agencies operating under the Department of Homeland Security will run out of funding unless Republicans in Congress come to an agreement on a separate bill for the fiscal year ending on September 30.
The Senate has passed a bill to fund DHS agencies including the Secret Service, Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency, but House Republicans have so far refused to go along.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Tom Hogue)
