LEAD STORIES: Senate Passes Immigration Bill, Hezbollah Rejects Ceasefire, 'Save Act' Voted Down

Senate Republicans worked through Thursday, June 4, to pass roughly $70 billion in funding for ICE and Border Patrol, beating back several amendments, including a Democratic effort to permanently block Trump from creating a $1.776 billion settlement fund for allies who claim government persecution. Majority Leader John Thune urged the GOP to keep the bill focused on agency funding, warning that adding settlement restrictions could trigger a House rejection or White House veto. The settlement, tied to resolving Trump’s lawsuit over leaked tax returns, has angered many Republicans; an amendment from Sen. Thom Tillis to redirect the money also failed despite over ten GOP votes. The funding has been stalled since early 2026, when Democrats demanded immigration-enforcement reforms after federal agents fatally shot two people in Minneapolis. Republicans are using a procedural maneuver to bypass the filibuster and fund the agencies for three years, through the end of Trump’s term.

What to look for

Watch whether Sen. Bill Cassidy’s planned amendment banning settlement payouts gains traction, since it poses the biggest threat to passage. Track the final Senate vote, the White House’s veto signals, and whether the House accepts the bill or refuses it as it did in March.

Hezbollah rejected the latest ceasefire agreement as Israeli strikes killed four people. An Israeli soldier was killed by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile, yet Trump claimed “progress has been made” and called the conflict “interconnected with Iran.” Trump said he would be open to meeting Iran’s new supreme leader if a deal ended the war, while the House rejected a Democrat-led Lebanon war powers resolution.

What to look for

Watch if Israel-Hezbollah fighting escalates despite the Israel-Lebanon agreement, plus any movement toward a Trump–Iran leadership meeting.

For the second time, four Senate Republicans—Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell, and Thom Tillis—joined all Democrats on June 4, 2026, to block President Trump’s marquee voter ID legislation, the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. Republicans had tried to attach the bill, via an amendment from Sen. Lindsey Graham, to their roughly $70 billion budget reconciliation package funding ICE and Border Patrol. Because of that pairing, the amendment needed 60 votes, a threshold it again failed to clear. Graham challenged Democrats directly, suggesting opposition to voter ID amounts to favoring cheating, and tied the measure to transgender issues. Sen. Alex Padilla countered that a similar proposal had been defeated bipartisanly a month earlier, that existing safeguards work, that noncitizen voting is already illegal, and that the effort amounted to a federal takeover of elections. The repeated failure underscores the SAVE Act’s slim prospects given unified Democratic resistance and incomplete GOP support.

What to look for

Watch whether GOP leaders attempt a third SAVE Act vote or abandon the effort, and whether the underlying ICE and Border Patrol funding package advances without it. Track Graham’s next move, Thune’s strategy, and whether the four Republican holdouts face political pressure or Trump’s public criticism.

From The New York Times:

“Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, just cast her 10,000th consecutive vote in the Senate, becoming the first senator in history to reach that threshold without missing a single vote.”