Kaine Unveils Amendments to Republican Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Resolution

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, unveiled his amendments to Senate Republicans' Fiscal Year 2026 budget resolution in an attempt to improve the bill, which currently tees up yet another massive increase in spending for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without any reforms that Democrats have been asking for to keep Americans safe. Last year, Republicans used the same partisan process to provide more than $170 billion for immigration enforcement.

"President Trump always claims he's going after the 'worst of the worst,' but what we've seen from this Administration is an unprecedented immigration enforcement campaign that has resulted in the tragic deaths of Americans, violence and chaos in neighborhoods across the country, and the detention and deportation of hardworking immigrants with no criminal records. Many of them have U.S. citizen families and other strong ties to this country. Instead of working with Democrats to pass commonsense reforms to ensure that our immigration laws are enforced safely and in an orderly manner, and working to lower your costs, Republicans would rather use this partisan process to give even more money to ICE and CBP without any safeguards, when they have already given them more than enough funding for the rest of the Trump-Vance Administration. I'm introducing amendments to this legislation that would reform ICE and CBP, provide automatic tariff refunds, protect federal workers, and address the high cost of living and other problems Americans are facing. We must stop the Trump-Vance Administration and Republicans from continuing to enact policies that hurt Virginians, weaken our economy, and make our communities less safe."

Kaine's amendments would:

• Reform ICE and CBP
• • Require ICE and CBP to inform and coordinate with state and local law enforcement agencies when conducting large-scale immigration enforcement operations.
  • Restore full funding for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entities that provide oversight on immigration enforcement and detention.
  • Require ICE and CBP personnel who discharge a firearm while on duty to be placed on mandatory administrative leave with pay until an investigation is completed, the same policy that many state and local law enforcement personnel must follow.
  • End arbitrary arrest quotas for ICE and CBP.
  • Prevent ICE and CBP from entering homes without judicial warrants.
  • Prevent ICE and CBP from racial profiling.
    
    
• Address cost-of-living and lower costs
• • Require the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to analyze the economic and fiscal costs of the Trump-Vance Administration's immigration enforcement measures.
  • Require a report on the costs associated with the Iran War.
  • Prevent multiple deficit-increasing reconciliation bills in a single Congress to stop Republicans from adding even more to the debt after their more than $4 trillion bill last year.
  • Provide automatic and full refunds for Trump's illegal broad-based tariffs.
  • Exempt groceries and other household goods from broad-based tariffs.
  • Protect families from higher energy costs.
  • Fund efforts to reduce child care costs instead of unnecessary wars.
  • Educate, prevent, and investigate housing discrimination.
  • Prevent efforts to undermine affordable housing construction.
    
    
• Protect health care
• • Restore access to Medicaid by reversing cuts from Republicans' prior reconciliation bill.
  • Reverse cuts from Republicans' first reconciliation bill that are leading to rural hospital closures.
  • Ensure families are able to access safe and effective vaccines.
  • Prevent the fast-tracking of any legislation that would undermine access to health care for Americans.
  • Provide support for services for seniors and persons with disabilities to help them remain in their homes and communities.
    
    
• Protect federal workers and funding for key agencies
• • Stop the Trump-Vance Administration from politicizing the federal workforce by reclassifying workers.
  • Prevent federal agencies and departments from terminating, rescheduling, or furloughing federal workers who are also veterans.
  • Rescind the elimination of unfilled positions at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities.
  • Prevent the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from collecting health and medical records of federal workers.
  • Support federal employee retirement processing at OPM and other federal agencies.
  • Support the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
  • Support efforts at NASA to further research, develop, and accomplish space missions.

This is the second time in Trump's second term that Republicans have relied on the reconciliation process. Last year, despite Kaine's strong objections, Republicans passed legislation through reconciliation that made massive cuts to Medicaid and SNAP to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

###