GOP furor over Trump's 'anti-weaponization' fund sinks Senate budget reconciliation bill
Senate Republicans blasted acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday over the Trump administration’s proposal to set up a $1.8 billion fund to compensate MAGA allies prosecuted by the Justice Department and made it clear that a budget reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement won’t move until their concerns are resolved.
GOP senators pressed Blanche during a tense meeting in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room to accept guardrails to limit who could get paid by the fund and vented their anger over the attorney general’s refusal during a hearing Tuesday to rule out the possibility that people convicted of crimes related to Jan. 6, 2021, could receive payouts, according to several people familiar with the meeting.
But Blanche resisted the Republican lawmakers’ demands to limit who would be eligible to get paid by the fund, further fueling the frustrations of senators in the room.
“It was a screaming fest,” said a Republican senator, who added the meeting gave GOP colleagues a chance to air their grievances with a top-level Cabinet official, not just over the proposed “anti-weaponization” fund but also over a litany of issues that they believe have made it tougher to defend their majority in the upcoming midterm election.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/gop-furor-over-trump-anti-100000799.html