STORY: U.S. Senate Republicans voted on Thursday to advance a $70 billion plan to fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agencies for the next three years.
THUNE: "Republicans are moving forward with a budget resolution that will allow us to fund critical functions that Democrats refuse to support."
The move ignores demands from Democrats for guardrails on those immigration enforcement agents and their operations.
SCHUMER: "Republicans want to shell out billions of dollars to Donald Trump's private army without any common sense reforms or restraints."
Funding for most of DHS ran out more than nine weeks ago as Democrats insisted that ICE and Border Patrol be subject to the same rules as police forces.
Democrats' push for new constraints came after two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis.
But weeks of negotiations had ended in a stalemate.
However, on Thursday lawmakers voted 50-48 to adopt a non-binding budget resolution and send it to the U.S. House of Representatives... taking a crucial step forward in their effort to end a partial shutdown that has gripped the Department of Homeland Security since mid-February.
Two Republicans - Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski - opposed the measure.
If adopted by the House, the resolution will allow congressional committees to begin filling in the details on how the $70 billion would be spent in separate legislation that President Donald Trump would have to sign into law.
The new funding would be expected to run through Trump's presidency, which ends in January 2029.
