ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Members of Congress are back this week after their Memorial Day break, but the problems they left behind have not gotten any easier. Republicans want to pass immigration enforcement funding for the rest of President Trump's term, and they're trying to fend off an effort by Democrats to force an end to the Iran war. NPR Congress reporter Eric McDaniel is here to talk about all this. Hey, Eric.
ERIC MCDANIEL, BYLINE: Hey.
FLORIDO: Let's start with this funding for immigration enforcement. Seems like an easy thing Republicans should have been able to get done - they control both the House and the Senate. But they missed the June 1 deadline that President Trump had said he wanted to meet on that. Why did they miss that deadline?
MCDANIEL: Well, in order to pass that bill on a party-line vote, Senate Democrats first get the chance to force votes on any amendment they want. They're focusing on this fund that the president set up to use taxpayer money to pay people he says have been unfairly victimized by the government. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche actually told Congress that might include payouts to January 6 insurrectionists. As you might imagine, that went over a bit like a skunk at a garden party among lawmakers. Those rioters threatened lawmakers, vandalized their workplace, attacked police.
Not to mention, the president never came to Congress, which legally speaking, gets to decide how your taxpayer dollars are spent. He just made this fund. And Republicans don't want to take votes on those amendments - amendments like that - if they can get the president to drop this fund entirely.
FLORIDO: Is the president going to back down on this?
MCDANIEL: No. He's not really shown any signs of that so far.
FLORIDO: So what is the path forward from here, then?
MCDANIEL: You know, I don't really know. This isn't made any easier by the fact the president keeps making himself Republican enemies with nothing to lose, particularly in the Senate. Thom Tillis is on his way out the door, and Trump-backed primary challenges - backed primary challengers just walloped to Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn, putting them out of a job come January. But the reality is this fund just isn't popular. In conversations I've had, as many as 30 Republicans might support a vote to ban the fund, and it's going to be interesting to watch how Republican senator - Senate Majority Leader John Thune moves forward from here.
FLORIDO: Let's talk about the war in Iran. Democrats keep trying to force votes to make Trump end the conflict, right? Where does that stand?
MCDANIEL: Right. I mean, just before Congress left town, Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, had to delay a war powers vote because he had attendance problems. That means he probably had an effective one-vote majority but lots more than that weren't there to vote. And it looked like this was on track to pass with Democratic support. A vote like this would force an end to the conflict. One did pass the Senate already. It's worth noting that any of these, though, when they land on the president's desk could just be vetoed.
A couple of things worth remarking on - the president has to come to Congress to authorize military conflicts. The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, regulate military action, and Trump hasn't come to ask for permission like he's statutorily required to. And the war on Iran is both very expensive in direct costs and impacts on the overall cost of living, as well as just very unpopular with Americans as a whole.
FLORIDO: Eric, Republicans have full control of Congress and the White House. So does it feel surprising to you that they are this paralyzed right now?
MCDANIEL: A little bit, but I think it's also worth remembering that these majorities are more or less as small as they can be. It means anything like a late flight or positive COVID test could grind things to a halt. And this nearly $2 billion anti-weaponization fund, as the president calls it, is not a small thing. It's a very big thing.
I'd also say we're moving out of primary season when lawmakers have to worry about upsetting voters from their own parties and into general election season when lawmakers, in theory, at least, since there are so few competitive seats - they now have to worry about all voters. And Trump is very popular among Republican primary voters and very unpopular among the country as a whole. That means him wanting something, you know, might not hold as much sway as it could.
FLORIDO: That's NPR Congress reporter Eric McDaniel. Eric, thanks.
MCDANIEL: Thanks, Adrian. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
