House Rules Committee advances rule for reconciliation bill to add $70 billion for ICE and CBP amid heated debate

House Republicans moved forward on a rules package Monday to allow full floor consideration of S.2, the Secure America Act, a reconciliation measure that would provide roughly $70 billion in additional funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The Rules Committee debate spotlighted deep partisan disagreement over both the need for new, mandatory funding and the procedural route to deliver it. Supporters said the package was necessary after bipartisan negotiations over regular appropriations stalled. “We have a responsibility to fund departments and agencies through regular order,” said Chairman Garbarino, urging passage of measures that would hire, train and equip additional personnel and modernize border technology. He said the bill includes more than $64 billion for staffing and about $3.5 billion for surveillance and inspection technology.

Democrats countered that the reconciliation vehicle short‑circuits ordinary oversight and risked empowering an agency they described as already prone to abuses. “House Republicans are bringing forward another partisan reconciliation bill to provide an additional $70 billion to ICE and Customs and Border Patrol,” Representative Scanlon said in opposition, arguing the money would bankroll mass deportation and unchecked contracting. Representative Escobar, who lives on the U.S.–Mexico border, described conditions he said he had seen at detention sites funded by prior reconciliation dollars, saying some facilities were “not meeting medical standards” and referencing Camp East Montana as a $1.24 billion tent city with serious care shortfalls.

Committee members repeatedly cited figures from previous funding cycles: Republicans asserted that last year’s legislation already provided roughly $140 billion and that not all of those funds are available for the same operations; Democrats noted testimony that DHS still has about $100 billion unspent from prior measures and urged stronger guardrails. The hearing also included a wide-ranging, floor‑style exchange in which members on both sides cited alleged waste, no‑bid contracts and instances of deaths in custody.

The Rules Committee ultimately adopted a closed rule to report the bills to the House floor and voted on a series of proposed amendments; several amendment proposals—including ones aimed at prohibiting use of taxpayer money to compensate convicted January 6 defendants or to prohibit the disputed Justice Department settlement fund—failed to pass in committee votes.

What happens next: the Rules Committee reported the rule, clearing the bills for consideration by the full House. Lawmakers and advocacy groups said they will continue to push for, or against, amendments on the House floor; members across the aisle signaled plans to offer or demand additional guardrails, transparency measures and conditions linking new funds to clear oversight.

Notes: The hearing included extensive testimony from Homeland Security committee members and witnesses, plus multiple requests for additional investigations of DHS contracting and detention‑center conditions. The committee also advanced three Oversight Committee bills intended to expand pre‑payment fraud prevention and preserve pandemic‑era analytics capacity.