Trump White House tells Congress it needs border cash now
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During a closed-door lunch on Tuesday, two top Trump officials urged Republican senators to fast-track $175 billion in new border money.
Why it matters: The White House is turning up the heat as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate GOP Leader John Thune's (R-S.D.) game of reconciliation chicken gets more hostile.
- Trump border czar Tom Homan and OMB chief Russell Vought told Republican senators that the administration is running out of money for their immigration crackdown.
- "After hearing these two gentlemen today, we're living on borrowed time," Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi also sent a letter to lawmakers asking for more border resources, per to a copy obtained by Axios and first reported by Fox News.
Between the lines: Speaker Johnson told his conference that he would not bring Graham's version of a budget reconciliation bill to the House floor — favoring "one big, beautiful bill" that would also address tax policy, Punchbowl first reported.
- Graham said he would also prefer one big bill, but the Senate and Graham's committee is "moving because we have to."
- Graham will begin marking up his bill in committee on Wednesday. It includes $150 billion for defense spending and $175 billion for the border.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the officials were careful not to explicitly back the House's one-bill or the Senate's two-bills strategy.
- "I do think that at some point, somebody's going to have to get the House and the Senate on the same page," Hawley added. "I assume that somebody will need to be the White House."
Zoom in: Homan and Vought stressed that they need funding to find tens of thousands of unauthorized immigrant kids who the government lost contact with after releasing them to caretakers.
- "After Tom talked about trying to find these children, half of us started to cry," Graham said.
- The White House officials also assured senators that the $175 billion in Graham's bill would be enough to follow through on Trump's border promises for the full four years.
- "They're helping make the case for why the $175 billion budget bill that Lindsey [Graham] is pushing is important," Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) told Axios about the meeting.
The bottom line: "I am urging the Speaker to invite [Homan and Vought] over and let them tell the House what they told us," Graham said.
