Anxious GOP lawmakers seek specific promise that DOJ fund is dead before moving on Trump agenda

(CNN) — Senate Republicans need more assurances that the Trump administration will completely drop a controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund after the Justice Department said it would abide by a court order temporarily blocking the effort.

Many senators told CNN they cannot move ahead with funding Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and border patrol until they know that it is dead, rather than simply kicked down the road.

The Justice Department said Monday afternoon that it will abide by a court ruling temporarily blocking the administration from moving forward on the fund, though it stopped short of committing to scrap the fund entirely.

The pause, which was ordered by a federal judge in Virginia last week, bars the department from allocating money to create the fund, considering any claims or distributing any money to applicants.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson said the Justice Department “disagrees strongly” with the judge’s ruling, but that it “will abide.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley declared, “The only thing that’s going to solve this problem to get immigration funded and law enforced is for the president to do away with the weaponization fund.” Pressed on whether the statement from DOJ is enough, Grassley insisted, “No.”

GOP Sen. John Kennedy declared that the administration needs to say “definitively” that the fund is not moving forward.

“If the administration has changed its position on the weaponization fund, it should say so definitively, definitively. But just saying we’re going to abide by the court order, I mean, I can’t speak for my colleagues, but speaking personally, you’re not talking to Bambi’s baby brother here. Saying you’re going to follow a court order doesn’t tell me anything. You have to follow the court order,” he said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has expressed serious concerns with the fund, agreed that the administration needs to be more specific. “Well, if it means it’s completely pulled, then that would satisfy me, but I haven’t heard anybody say that that is actually what is happening,” she told reporters.

Another GOP senator who has expressed misgivings, Sen. John Curtis, said he still has concerns about the future of the fund. “I have a lot of unanswered questions, and it’s not enough for me to have the courts push back. I just want to make sure this thing doesn’t move forward in its current form,” he said. “I’d be happy to look at guardrails — they’d have to be pretty robust,” he added.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday signaled ahead of the DOJ announcement that President Donald Trump needs to drop his push for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that has infuriated fellow Republicans and stalled the broader GOP agenda.

“I do think that the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune said when asked about the fierce backlash to the White House’s controversial push.

Thune’s remarks were uncharacteristically blunt for the South Dakota leader. But it’s a reflection of the sour mood across the Senate GOP conference about Trump’s recent push, with dozens of Republican senators refusing to go along with the $1.8 billion fund that critics say would seek to enrich MAGA loyalists, including people convicted of rioting at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Many Senate Republican have been furious over the fund and have been refusing to advance a separate bill to fund immigration enforcement until they are satisfied that payouts won’t go to people who assaulted police during the attack on the US Capitol and other guardrails are put in place.

Trump met with House Speaker Mike Johnson at the White House on Monday to discuss roadblocks to the bill to fund immigration enforcement — specifically, according to a person familiar with the meeting, the administration’s proposed “anti-weaponization” fund.

Thune did not answer questions about whether he had spoken directly with Trump on the issue. He said he had not yet spoken with Johnson.

Amid the backlash, some Trump advisers have privately advocated adding guardrails to the fund to appease Republican lawmakers and to quell the public criticism, people familiar with the discussions said.

One common suggestion has been to restrict those convicted of assaulting police from accessing the fund, in an effort to prevent the most violent rioters from the Capitol attack from collecting taxpayer-funded payouts.

Some allies are even urging the White House to scrap the fund altogether. But Trump has publicly defended the fund.

The order from US District Judge Leonie Brinkema that bars the administration from taking steps to stand up the fund is in place until at least June 12 — the day she’s set to hold a hearing over whether to issue a more lasting pause on the controversial policy.

Brinkema, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, could extend the existing order to give herself more time to weigh what to do next in the case. In the meantime, DOJ lawyers defending the program must provide written arguments to her and another court in Washington, DC, that is also weighing the legality of the fund by this Friday. The judge in DC is set to hold his own hearing next Wednesday.

Those forthcoming filings will represent the first official defense of the program as it faces at least four legal challenges and could answer key questions about whether the administration plans to continue pursuing the fund at all.

At stake on Capitol Hill as Republicans revolt against the “anti-weaponization” fund is the fate of $70 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, which Senate leaders are attempting to pass in a budget process called reconciliation that allows them to adopt it on a party-line vote. Democrats are angry over tactics by those agencies they believe are too aggressive.

Trump had pressed for a June 1 deadline to pass the money that will fund those agencies through the end of his term. But the deadline was missed after GOP senators were enraged by the Department of Justice announcement about the “anti-weaponization” fund, which the agency said was aimed at paying restitution to people targeted by the Biden administration. Critics have said it amounts to a slush fund to pay out Trump’s allies.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former long-serving GOP leader, said at the time it was “utterly stupid, morally wrong.”

Democrats have pledged to fight the fund on several fronts, including as part of the budget bill where they would be able to offer an unlimited number of amendments. They have said they will put Republicans — especially those up for reelection in November — on the record on the controversial policy.

“This week, Senate Democrats will launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door. And no matter what Republicans do, we will force them to vote,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a Monday letter to his colleagues.

He added: “There will be no escape hatch. No fake guardrails or backroom promises to hide behind. No Justice Department announcement that makes this corruption acceptable.”

With the immigration agenda in limbo, the Senate is expected to take up nominations this week. Senators also hope to pass a three-year extension of a key national security program, known as FISA Section 702, that expires in less than two weeks. It has bipartisan support and is expected to pass.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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