Republicans Fail To Eliminate Chuck Schumer Carveout From Funding Package

A group of conservative Republicans on Friday failed to eliminate an allocation to a left-leaning nonprofit supporting illegal immigrants as part of a government funding program.

Lawmakers voted 58-42 to file an amendment that would eliminate a $500,000 allocation to New York-based New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) secured by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer through five appropriations bills. All Democratic lawmakers voted to introduce the amendment, sponsored by Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee. (RELATED: Senate Conservatives Remove ‘Gateway Drug’ Allowances From Government Funding Bills)

The vote divided Republicans, with 11 Republican lawmakers supporting the filing motion. Those senators include John Boozman of Arkansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Many of these senators serve on the Appropriations Committee that oversees earmark requests.

NICE, located in the Queens borough of New York, provides “empowering legal education” to non-citizens whose cases come before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and immigration court. The group also offers job training programs to non-citizens.

“This is an organization that serves immigrants who are here illegally,” Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, a leading opponent of earmarks, said Friday in support of Lee’s amendment. “Why should the American taxpayer foot the bill to support illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities when so many American citizens are struggling themselves?

“We will never bring inflation under control or lower interest rates until we balance the federal budget,” Scott added.

Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray led the motion, arguing that Lee’s amendment would derail the funding plan and undermine the appropriations process.

“This amendment would defund a member’s project simply because the senator proposing the amendment doesn’t like the project,” Murray said in reference to Lee. “That’s not how this process should work.”

The amendment’s vote comes as the Senate is expected to approve a bipartisan spending deal on Friday funding large swaths of the federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year. The funding deal will also temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks while Democrats and the White House negotiate immigration enforcement reforms following the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota.

U.S. Senator Mike Lee (center), Republican of Utah, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a breakfast with Senate Republicans in the State Dining Room of the White House November 5, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

The Senate voted to file another Lee Friday amendment that would remove all allocations from the five-bill package by a vote of 67 to 33. All Democratic lawmakers voted to reject Lee’s amendment.

“The federal government, through taxpayers, should not fund hospitals that give puberty blockers to children, nonprofit museums, left-wing labor organizations or left-wing activist doctors, or groups providing legal aid or subsidized housing specifically to illegal aliens,” Lee said Thursday night as he tore through the funding plan’s list of allocations, including the $500,000 allocation to NICE.

“We should not facilitate this abuse of power and violate the commitments that President Trump and we, as Senate Republicans, made on the campaign trail to eliminate and end the waste of wealth in the federal government,” Lee continued.

The Senate also rejected an amendment Friday to remove $5.1 billion in refugee aid funding from the budget appropriations.

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