Senate GOP Defeats Chuck Schumer Amendment To Ban Trump’s $1.776 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund

The Senate GOP defeated a bid to permanently ban President Donald Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund, with Senate Republicans voting Thursday to defeat an amendment sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to prohibit the Justice Department from establishing a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for MAGA allies.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers this week the administration would abandon the fund, but the amendment still failed by a vote of 49-50 as all Democrats voted for it and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) was absent for the vote.

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The vote was kept open for nearly three hours as Republican senators debated possible amendments to a $70 billion budget reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement, and Sen. Bill Cassidy threatened to join Sens. Susan Collins, Dan Sullivan and Jon Husted in voting for Schumer’s amendment unless assurances came from Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Sen. Rand Paul said the vote was held open so long because there was an impasse “over whether or not there can be something put into the bill” to ensure there is no anti-weaponization fund.

In a separate development, the Justice Department created the fund in May as part of a settlement that dismissed Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over leaks of his 2019 and 2020 tax returns, and the Senate vote came as Republicans weighed how to keep immigration enforcement funding moving.

After Blanche told a House appropriations subcommittee the administration would abandon the proposed fund, Trump injected uncertainty Wednesday when he was asked in the Oval Office whether it was dead or just on hold and responded, “I’d have to ask the lawyers. I don’t know.”

NBC News reported that Blanche had said at a congressional hearing that the Justice Department was “not moving forward with the fund, period,” while he declined to put the commitment in writing.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on X that Republicans chose to support “this corrupt slush fund” moments after the motion failed to pass, despite gaining support from three Republican senators: Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska.

The Hill also reported that Schumer dismissed Blanche’s pledge as “worthless,” and CNN described how Senate Republicans rejected multiple efforts to kill the fund during a marathon “vote-a-rama” on amendments to a $70 billion GOP immigration bill.

CNN further noted that GOP leaders were trying to defuse a potential revolt by Republicans who wanted to back the immigration enforcement bill without explicitly killing the fund in writing, even as Trump defended the fund as “a beautiful thing.”

A federal judge temporarily blocked the creation of the nearly $1.8 billion fund in Alexandria, Virginia, with Judge Leonie Brinkema barring the government from establishing the fund or processing disbursements until a hearing scheduled for June 12.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Brinkema temporarily blocked all disbursements from the fund and scheduled a June 12 hearing to decide whether to extend the order, while also noting that the Department of Justice had not formed the five-member commission that would decide payout criteria.

The stakes for Congress were immediate because the Senate was holding a “vote-a-rama” on amendments to a $70 billion GOP immigration bill, and CNN said the immigration enforcement bill had been stalled for weeks by an ongoing GOP rebellion over the “anti-weaponization” fund.

Sen. Thom Tillis told CNN he would not vote for the immigration enforcement funding bill if it did not include an amendment to kill the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, and CNN said that made the legislation likely in jeopardy after Republican leaders said it would take more than a simple majority to amend it.

Meanwhile, the fund’s legal challenges continued, with the Los Angeles Times describing plaintiffs’ arguments that there was “no legal basis or accountability mechanisms,” and noting that Brinkema said it was important to maintain the status quo so funds are not disbursed in an irreversible manner.