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Capito: Reconciliation bill first step in restoring funding to ICE, Border Patrol

CHARLESTON – U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and her Senate colleagues pulled an all-nighter, voting early Thursday morning on a reconciliation package to keep essential immigration enforcement and border protection funded.

The U.S. Senate voted 50-48 just after 3:35 a.m. Thursday for the fiscal year 2026 budget resolution, which includes funding for Immigrations and Custom Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. The bill provides approximately $70 billion for these agencies.

Senate Republican leadership passed the bill through the budget reconciliation process, which does not require the traditional 60-vote cloture threshold in order to be considered by the full Senate. This allowed the bill to be passed by a simple majority, mostly along party lines.

“We did stay up until almost 4 o’clock … to complete something which is called the reconciliation bill,” said Capito, R-W.Va., during a conference call with reporters later Thursday morning. “Basically, it’s finally going to be funding border security and ICE. These are essential government entities that help with our homeland security; that keep us safe.”

Capito, who has been supportive of President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and undocumented immigrants, said the bill would provide needed funding for up to three-and-a-half years.

“Now we have essentially a closed border with very little illegal immigration coming through, which also lessens the amount of fentanyl and drugs coming through the border,” Capito said. “But the Democrats just will not vote for law enforcement, and they are interested in keeping open borders. So, we have taken a problem that we see and tried to find a solution which is funding these two agencies all the way for the next three-and-a-half years.”

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for the past 69 days with only essential services being funded. Other services, such as the Transportation Security Administration whose workers man airport screening checkpoints, have been paid by order of Trump through available funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, though DHS officials have warned that TSA funding could run out by mid-May unless DHS is fully funded.

“It still leaves the rest of Homeland Security unfunded. We’re running out of money there,” Capito said. “Hopefully once these essential border patrol and ICE services get paid for, we can move to funding the Coast Guard. I’ve already voted 16 times to do this. I’m going to continue to do that.”

The reconciliation bill now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives, where discussions between Senate and House Republican leadership are ongoing. A bill to partially fund DHS passed by the Senate last month was rejected by the House. Any changes to the budget reconciliation bill by the House would need to come back to the Senate for approval.

“There’s no guarantee in the House these days. They are a bit of a wild card there sometimes in terms of determining what direction they’re going to go,” Capito said. “But I think they believe in law enforcement and securing our borders and securing our internal security, and I hope their votes will reflect that. I don’t anticipate any changes, but we’ll be anxious to see it as they move it through their process.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.

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