Senate Republicans greenlight ICE and CBP budget blueprint after overnight vote-a-rama
U.S. Capitol (Getty/Andrey Denisyuk)
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans approved early on Thursday a blueprint for their budget bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection after an all-night voting marathon.
The budget resolution, which kicks off the drafting process of a bill that Republicans said would provide billions to ICE and CBP, was approved by a vote of 50-48. It needed a simple majority of votes to be approved.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky, joined with the Democrats in voting against the resolution. All other Republicans voted in favor of it.
The Senate approved the resolution at about 3:36 a.m. after a vote-a-rama that lasted approximately 6 hours.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers remarks during working-level peace talks at the U.S. State Department, April 14, 2026, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Data collected by the State Department that has not previously been made public indicates that the number of people receiving treatment through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has remained steady despite dramatic cuts to foreign aid funding under the Trump administration, according to an internal department memo sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and seen exclusively by ABC News.
The memo, which is marked sensitive but unclassified, says that even though overall spending on the initiative fell by roughly 30%, 20.6 million people living with HIV in more than 50 countries received anti-retroviral treatment through U.S. government programs during the 2025 fiscal year — the same number government data shows were receiving the therapy in 2024.
However, the memo did not provide information on the number of individuals who had received testing and counseling services through PEPFAR, which was 84.1 million in 2024. Global health experts estimate that figure could have fallen by more than 15 million in 2025, due in part to an interruption to some testing programs during the Trump administration’s freeze on most foreign aid in early 2025.
But Jeremy Lewin, the State Department’s senior official for foreign and security assistance, reports that the data collected in 2025 shows progress towards other Trump administration goals, including ending mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Lewin wrote to Rubio that the number of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers who began pre-exposure prophylaxis through PEPFAR more than doubled. He said it climbed from 43,000 in 2024 to 103,000 in 2025, ” showing early progress on any early focus area of yours and President Trump’s.”
Additionally, Lewin said the 2025 data demonstrates “an important shift toward country self-reliance,” indicating that treatment programs for 3 million people with HIV/AIDS were now being managed by national governments rather than organizations working on behalf of PEPFAR.
Lewin said the department expected to see “further progress” toward country self-reliance as it further shifts toward its new global health strategy based on bilateral agreements that mandate a level of co-investment from participating nations.
In a letter outlining the plan in September 2025, Rubio said that the U.S. would enter pacts with 71 countries by the end of the year and establish detailed implementation plans with those nations by the end of March 2026 — a timeline the administration has fallen behind.
In his memo, Lewin said that as of April 7, the U.S had now “signed 30 compacts with nearly $20.6 billion dollars in both U.S. and partner co-investment commitments,” adding that the current data “does not yet show the impact of these historic deals.”
The Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy will confidentially brief members of Congress on the 2025 PEPFAR data before releasing it to the public on Friday, according to the memo.
Since it was launched by former President George W. Bush in 2003, PEPFAR has saved 25 million lives globally, supported 7 million orphans and vulnerable children, and enabled 5.5 million babies to be born HIV-free, according to the State Department. It’s credited as the largest commitment by any country to fight a single disease in history.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sign stands at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate, now facing an impasse in negotiations, did not cast votes on a government funding deal on Thursday, sending the government ever closer to a partial shutdown with a little more than 24 hours until funding runs out.
Senate Democrats announced earlier Thursday they had struck an agreement with the White House to move forward with a plan that would see the Department of Homeland Security funding bill separated from a package of five other bills. Programs funded by the five-bill package would be funded until the end of September. DHS would be funded for two additional weeks to allow lawmakers to negotiate on other provisions in the package.
The Senate must get unanimous agreement to move forward with this plan if it wants to hold votes before Friday night’s deadline. As it stood Thursday night, there seemed to be objections by senators on both sides of the aisle gumming up the works.
“Tomorrow’s another day, and hopefully people will be in a spirit to try and get this done tomorrow,” Majority Leader John Thune said as he was leaving the Capitol late Thursday.
If Senators can’t win over the objectors by Friday, they’ll force the government into a partial shutdown. The Senate will reconvene at 11 a.m. Friday to see if they can reach an agreement. Any agreement they do reach would still need to be approved by the House, so at least a brief partial shutdown is, at this stage, highly likely.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is the Senate’s most vocal objector to the deal. He stormed into Republican Leader John Thune’s office earlier tonight calling the agreement stuck between Democrats and the White House a “bad deal” and telling reporters he was objecting to its advancement.
Graham called the treatment of ICE officers “unconscionable” as he was asked about his objections to proceeding.
“From a Republican point of view, the cops need us right now. They are being demonized. They’re being spat upon. They can’t sleep at night,” Graham said. “Are they right to want to change some ICE procedures? Absolutely. But I’m not going to lead this debate for two weeks before I can explain to the American people what I think the problem is. The problem is, structurally, for four years, the country was ruined.”
Graham also seems to be opposed to the deal because it would strip a controversial provision, passed in a stopgap funding bill earlier this year, that allows senators to file lawsuits if their phone records are accessed without notice. Graham was one of seven Republican senators whose phone toll data were accessed by Special Counsel Jack Smith during his investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“I am not going to ignore what happened,” Graham said. “If you were abused, your phone records were illegally seized, you should have your day in court.
It seems there may be other senators who have separate challenges with the funding bill plan as well, but it’s not yet clear who those senators are.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer placed blame on Republicans for the stall in votes tonight.
“Republicans need to get their act together,” he said as he left the Capitol.
But when pushed on whether any Democrats had outstanding objections to the bill that might stall things, Schumer didn’t give a clear answer.
Thune said there remains “snags on both sides” stopping the bill from advancing but wouldn’t give details about Democratic objections.
“They’ve got a couple issues on their side they’ve got to clear them up, we’ve got some things we’ve got to work on. But hopefully by sometime tomorrow we’ll be in a better spot,” Thune said.
It is likely that even if the Senate passes the bills, there will still be a short partial shutdown — the bills would need to go back to the House for consideration. It seems unlikely the House, which is in recess until Monday, could pass any of these bills before Friday night’s funding deadline.
Earlier Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC News’ Selina Wang that bringing the House back before Monday “may not be possible.”
“So, we have got some logistical challenges, but we’ll do it as quickly as we can and get everybody back,” Johnson said at the premiere of the “Melania” film. “And if there is a short-term shutdown, I think we’ll get it reopened quickly.”
Asked earlier Thursday if he was on board with the deal struck by Democrats in the Senate, Johnson said he had not yet seen details of the bill. But when asked if he supports Democrats’ demands to reign in federal agents — including prohibiting face masks and requiring body cameras — Johnson said “No.”
Democrats called to separate the DHS funding following the deaths of Renee Good, a mother of three who was fatally shot by an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis earlier this month, and became more urgent after the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal law enforcement over the weekend.
After Democratic urging, a critical mass of Republicans seemed prepared Thursday afternoon to support an agreement.
Earlier Thursday, Senate Democrats voted unanimously to block the package of six funding bills, with it failing to advance by a vote of 45-55. It would have needed at least 60 votes to proceed. Multiple Republicans also cast votes against the package.
Coming into the negotiations, Senate Democrats laid out a list of additional demands including: ending roving patrols, ensuring federal agents are held to the same use of force policies that apply to state and local law enforcement, preventing agents from wearing masks and requiring body cameras.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump struck an optimistic tone about averting a shutdown.
“Hopefully we won’t have a shutdown and we’re working on that right now. I think we’re getting close,” Trump said during his Cabinet meeting. “The Democrats, I don’t believe want to see it either, so we’ll work in a very bipartisan way.”
.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a lunch with the Trump Kennedy Center Board Members in the East Room of the White House on March 16, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Monday during a signing event in the Oval Office that he thinks he’ll have the “honor” of taking Cuba.
“It’s a failed nation,” Trump said. “They have no money, they have no oil, they have no nothing. They have nice land. They have nice landscape. You know, it’s a beautiful island.”
“All my life I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba,” Trump continued. “You know, when will the United States do it? I do believe I’ll [have the] honor of taking Cuba. That’d be good. That’s a big honor.”
The president’s comments came as Cuba was struggling with an energy crisis and a near-total blackout, according to local officials. The Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mines said Monday there was a “total disconnection” of the National Electroenergetic System, which is known as SEN. Cubans are facing limited water supplies, a loss of basic services in hospitals as well as access to medicine, sanitation and food, according to reports.
The United States this year put in place a blockade, cutting off Havana’s access to foreign oil shipments, including those from Venezuela.
The Cuban ministry said on Tuesday that it was working to restore the system after earlier saying the “causes are being investigated and protocols for restoration are beginning to be activated.”
When pressed during the Oval Office event about what “taking” the country could mean, Trump responded: “I think I can do anything I want with it.”
Trump announced additional tariffs in January on countries that provide oil to Cuba. He acknowledged while speaking to Politico that the United States’ intervention in Venezuela has contributed to Cuba’s struggle.
“Well, it’s because of my intervention, intervention that is happening,” Trump told Politico. “Obviously, otherwise they wouldn’t have this problem. We cut off all oil, all money … everything coming in from Venezuela, which was the sole source.”
Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that he believes Cuba will soon “make a deal” with the U.S.
“I am holding Cuba — Cuba is a failed nation — Cuba also wants to make a deal, and I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we have to do,” Trump said on Sunday. “The president added that he thinks “something will happen with Cuba pretty quickly,” but that “we’re going to do Iran before Cuba.”
Trump has previously floated a “friendly takeover” of Cuba but hasn’t yet provided any specifics on what a possible “takeover” could look like.
In a rare move on Friday, Cuba’s president publicly acknowledged that his government was holding secretive talks with the U.S. as Trump intensifies his pressure campaign against the regime.
“Cuban officials have recently held talks with representatives of the United States government,” President Miquel Díaz-Canel said during a televised address on Friday.
“We want to avoid manipulation and speculation,” Díaz-Canel later added, explaining that the talks were still “in their first phase” and that negotiators from both countries were working “to establish an agenda.”
“As the president stated, we are talking to Cuba, whose leaders should make a deal, which he believes ‘would be very easily made,'” a Trump administration official told ABC News when asked about the Cuban leader’s statements.
“Cuba is a failing nation whose rulers have had a major setback with the loss of support from Venezuela and with Mexico ceasing to send them oil,” the official continued.
Little is known about the contours of any potential deal, but both the president and seasoned diplomats who have worked closely with Cuba for years have signaled they expect to see the regime collapse.
