WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Senate Republicans on April 23 advanced a budget measure that would pave the way to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol without any Democratic support as funding for the Department of Homeland Security remained lapsed.
The same week, President Donald Trump said in response to questions from journalists not to “rush” him on the Iran war, as controversy over his comments about Pope Leo XIV continued.
Senate Republicans move forward on bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol
Senate Republicans voted April 23 to approve a budget measure instructing committees to begin drafting a bill to authorize funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol as funds for the Department of Homeland Security remain lapsed.
The measure passed 50-48 after Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined Democrats in opposing the resolution. The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, meaning they could bypass the upper chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold and send legislation to the GOP-controlled House that would authorize $70 billion in funds for ICE and Border Patrol.
Those entities fall under the purview of DHS, which has been shut down for months after lawmakers reached a stalemate over reforms regarding federal immigration officers after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens in Minnesota who were killed by federal agents in separate incidents. The Senate previously passed legislation to fund other entities under DHS, such as the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard, but the GOP-controlled House has yet to take it up as they seek to fund immigration enforcement agencies.
Catholic immigration advocates are among those who have called for change at the department after the deaths of Pretti and Good, and after former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was removed from her post after a controversial tenure.
Trump says not to ‘rush’ him on Iran war
As Trump faced a looming 60-day deadline for congressional authorization of the war in Iran, which expires on May 1, Trump suggested he was not in a “rush” to end the conflict.
“I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t,” he wrote on his social media website Truth Social on April 23.
“Don’t rush me. Don’t rush me,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office the same day. “Every story I see, ‘Oh, Trump is under time pressure,’ I’m not. No, no. You know who’s under time pressure? They are.”
Meanwhile, most Americans say they do not believe there were sufficient reasons for the U.S. to carry out combat operations in Iran, according to a Marquette Law School national survey published April 22.
The views that the U.S. did not have sufficient reason to go to war dovetail with a recent statement issued by Auxiliary Bishop James Massa of Brooklyn, New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, underscoring the Church’s understanding of just war theory and Pope Leo’s objections to the conflict.
“A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church),” Bishop Massa said. “That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.'”
Controversy continues over Trump’s Pope Leo comments
After Trump lashed out at Pope Leo on social media and in verbal remarks over the pontiff’s opposition to the Iran war over the course of several days starting April 12, members of the Trump administration continued to face questions about his comments.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters at a press briefing on April 24, “The pope’s gonna do his thing, that’s fine.”
“We know what our mission is; we know what authority we have. We’re very clear about that; we follow that: the orders of the president,” he said.
Hegseth, who uses the moniker “secretary of war” since Trump signed an executive order last year adding the “Department of War” as a secondary, ceremonial title for the Department of Defense, added, “We’ve got lawyers all over the place looking at what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and giving us every authority necessary under the Constitution and under our laws to execute across the spectrum.”
Pope Leo has been a staunch critic of war generally, including that initiated by the U.S. and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28. In defense of their combat operations, the Trump administration has argued the Iranian regime presented grave nuclear threats.
But in an interview on MS Now on April 22, former Vice President Mike Pence said he took issue with “the language and images” Trump has used in recent weeks, calling a posted-and-deleted AI-generated image that appeared to depict the president as Jesus “offensive.”
“I think the president was right to take that one image down and his ongoing argument with Pope Leo, I think, has abated to a degree, and I welcome that,” Pence said.
“I think the Pope has every right to express himself in a manner that he believes is consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the president has every right to express his view and his agenda for the American people,” Pence continued. “If I was advising him — as I did every day for four and a half years — I’d say: Let the pope be the pope, and you be the president.”
While the controversy continued to swirl, Trump participated April 21 in an event called “America Reads the Bible,” speaking by prerecorded video message to read from Scripture.
Bipartisan bill would change SNAP rules to allow participants to purchase hot rotisserie chicken
A bipartisan bill would allow participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to purchase hot rotisserie chicken with their benefits — something currently forbidden by the program.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., joined Sens. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., in introducing the Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act, arguing in statements that the proposal would benefit both families and taxpayers by allowing the purchase of a nutritious and low-cost meal.
Qualified SNAP recipients — low-income families, seniors and persons with disabilities living on fixed incomes — receive monthly allowances through their accounts, with SNAP EBT cards used like debit or credit cards to purchase essential foods or seeds to grow food. The funds are not permitted to be used for sales tax, pet foods, or nonfood items like alcohol, tobacco, vitamins and medicine. Prepared foods are also forbidden.
But the senators argued that a hot rotisserie chicken is a grocery store staple that should not be seen as a luxury item. They also argued current rules are inconsistent because they categorize hot rotisserie chickens as prepared food items, but they do allow the purchase of a cooked rotisserie chicken that has been cooled down.
“America’s best (and delicious) affordability play is Costco’s $4.99 rotisserie chicken,” Fetterman said in a statement. “It’s one of my family’s favorites and I’m proud to join this bill with Senator Justice for all to try. SNAP funds would be well spent to feed our nation’s families who need it.”
“Allowing folks on SNAP to buy hot rotisserie chickens is truly just commonsense,” Justice added. “It’s as basic as you can get to help busy parents or grandparents put something as simple as this on the table to feed their families. We have to give people the option to put a healthy, protein-dense choice on the table that actually tastes good and doesn’t take an hour and a half to cook.”
About 42 million Americans, or 1-in-8, rely on SNAP. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that in fiscal year 2023, 79% of SNAP recipient households included either a child, an elderly individual or a nonelderly individual with a disability. A majority of families that received SNAP benefits in 2018 included at least one employed individual, the American Community Survey, a project by the U.S. Census Bureau, found.
Catholic advocates are among those who have urged for SNAP to be strengthened and protected.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
