Senators are ready to stay up all night, having launched a budget “vote-a-rama” late Thursday in a crucial, if dreaded, step toward unleashing a $340 billion package President Donald Trump’s team says it needs for mass deportations and security measures that top the Republican agenda. If ever there was a time to watch Congress in action, this might be it. Or not. Senators will be voting in rapid fashion for hours on one amendment after another diving into intricate policy details, largely from Democrats trying to halt the package. The result will be a final push by the Republicans, expected in the early hours of the morning, to use their majority power to pass it on a party-line vote. “What we’re doing today is jumpstarting a process that will allow the Republican Party to meet President Trump’s immigration agenda,” Senate Budget Committee chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said while opening the debate. Graham said Trump’s top immigration czar, Tom Homan, told senators that the administration’s deportation operations are “out of money” and need more funding from Congress to detain and deport immigrants. With little power in the minority to stop the onslaught, Democrats will instead use the all-night debate to force GOP senators into potentially embarrassing votes — including the first one, on blocking tax breaks to billionaires. It was turned back, on procedural grounds. “This is going to be a long, drawn out fight,” warned Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. “Days like today, where we vote on amendments late into the night, go a long way in revealing where each party stands and who each party is fighting for,” the New York senator said. “Democrats are glad to have this debate.” The package that senators are pushing forward is what Republicans view as a down-payment on Trump’s agenda, part of a broader effort that will eventually include legislation to extend some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and other priorities. That’s being assembled by House Speaker Mike Johnson in a separate budget package that also seeks up to $2 trillion in reductions to health care and other programs. Trump has preferred what he calls one “big, beautiful bill,” but the White House is open to the Senate’s strategy of working on the border package first, then turning to tax cuts later this year. As voting began, the president posted a thank you to Senate Majority Leader John Thune “and the Republican Senate, for working so hard on funding the Trump Border Agenda.” What’s in the Senate GOP package The Republican Senate package would allow up to $175 billion to be spent on border security, including money for mass deportation operations and building the U.S.-Mexico border wall, in addition to a $150 billion boost to the Pentagon and about $20 billion for the Coast Guard. But even if the Senate pushed the package to approval in the all-night session, there won’t be any money flowing just yet. The budget resolution is simply a framework that sends instructions to the various Senate committees — Homeland Security, Armed Services, Judiciary — to hammer out the details. Everything will eventually be assembled in another package, with another vote-a-rama, down the road. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the No. 2-ranking Senate Republican, said GOP lawmakers are acting quickly to get the administration the resources they have requested and need to curb illegal border crossings. “The budget will allow us to finish the wall. It also takes the […]