Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) broke ranks Thursday morning and voted against a budget resolution that could set the stage for ending the two-month shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
Murkowski, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, opposed the budget resolution because it would lay the groundwork for passing a budget reconciliation package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for 3 1/2 years — effectively taking those two key agencies out of the annual congressional appropriations process.
Murkowski supports funding those critical immigration enforcement agencies, but she didn’t like that they would be largely removed from the congressional process of appropriating funds on an annual basis and conducting oversight.
Paul voted against the budget resolution after raising concerns about spending another $70 billion on ICE and Border Patrol when those agencies are still sitting on more than $100 billion in unobligated funding enacted in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Paul offered an amendment to offset the cost of new funding for ICE by cutting $5 billion from refugee welfare programs, cutting $4 billion from the National Science Foundation and shrinking the Department of Education by 16 percent.
“Congress ought to fund border security, but we should be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars and fully pay for the $70 billion to secure our borders,” Paul said on the floor.
The fiscally hawkish Republican raised concerns last year about the more than $170 billon the One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocated for border security and immigration enforcement, questioning whether such a large sum was justified.
The budget resolution still had enough votes to be adopted, 50-48.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) expressed his hope early Thursday that the House would be able to adopt the Senate budget resolution without any changes, warning that it would delay passage of a budget reconciliation package if the underlying budget resolution had to come back to the Senate for another round of votes.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
