WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is working through the night as Republicans are trying to pass funding for two immigration enforcement agencies over Democratic objections and reopen the Department of Homeland Security.
The lengthy session is the first step in a complicated process as Republicans seek to work around Democrats’ blockade of the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The entire Homeland Security Department has been shut down for more than two months as Democrats have demanded policy changes in the wake of fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents.
Republicans are now trying to fund the two agencies through the time-consuming process called budget reconciliation, a maneuver that they also used to pass President Donald Trump’s package of tax and spending cuts last year with no Democratic votes. The Senate has already voted on a bipartisan basis to reopen the rest of the department, but Republican leaders in the House say they won’t take that bill up until the Senate shows progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol, as well.
The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing filibuster rules that require Republicans to find 60 votes on most bills when they only hold 53 seats. But it also comes with increased scrutiny from the Senate parliamentarian and an open-ended series of amendment votes that could take all night to work through.
Democrats have said they will offer amendments to lower expenses for health care and other costs of living in an effort to contrast with Republicans’ focus on Trump’s campaign of immigration enforcement.
Republicans are “bending the knee to Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the votes.
The Senate is expected to pass the budget framework after the lengthy vote series, likely early Thursday morning, and send it to the House. Once the House approves the framework and the Senate Parliamentarian approves it, the two chambers can then move to pass the measure.
The $70 billion resolution would fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years, through the rest of Trump’s term. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and other GOP leaders say they hope to keep the bill narrowly focused on ICE and Border Patrol and get it to Trump’s desk by the end of the month, along with the rest of Homeland Security Department funding that has already passed the Senate.
But that could prove difficult as many in the party see the budget bill as the last real chance this year to enact their priorities. Republicans in both the Senate and House have pushed to add other items, including money for farmers and Trump’s proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America Act.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., briefly held up the vote series late Wednesday, frustrated that the bill would not include parts of the SAVE America Act or other issues.
“This is the last train leaving the station,” Kennedy said, predicting they would not be able to pass any other legislation ahead of November's midterm elections. But he withdrew his objections and allowed the voting to proceed.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., center, speaks with a reporter, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., holds a news conference about the budget process that Republicans hope will fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., flanked by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., left, and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters following a closed-door party meeting, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
INSTITUTE, W.Va. (AP) — A chemical leak at a West Virginia silver recovery business on Wednesday killed two people and sent about 30 others to hospitals, including one in serious condition, authorities said.
The leak occurred at the Catalyst Refiners plant in Institute as workers were preparing to shut down at least part of the facility, Kanawha County Commission Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said.
A chemical gas reaction occurred at the plant involving nitric acid and another substance, Sigman said at a news briefing. He added that there was "a violent reaction of the chemicals and it instantaneously overreacted.”
“Starting or ending a chemical reaction are the most dangerous times,” Sigman said.
The chemical reaction that was believed to have occurred during a cleaning process produced toxic hydrogen sulfide, Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango said.
Among the injured were seven ambulance workers responding to the leak, officials said.
“We know that the first responders, they always run to the fire. They put themselves in harm’s way,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said at an evening news conference. “We’re very grateful to these brave men and women and what they do. And they’re in our prayers, and we’re monitoring the recovery of those transported to our local hospitals.”
Other people were taken to the hospitals in private cars or even in one case a garbage truck, Sigman said.
Morrisey said one person was in serious condition.
Vandalia Health Charleston Area Medical Center, one of several hospitals in the area, was treating multiple patients, some brought by ambulance, while members of the community were arriving Wednesday afternoon asking to be checked, hospital spokesman Dale Witte said.
Witte said patients were experiencing respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, sore throat and itchy eyes. They were being evaluated in the emergency room.
WVU Medicine Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston said in a statement it has cared for a dozen patients, including eight who arrived by personal vehicle and were not at the scene but were in the area at the time. It said those injuries were not considered life-threatening.
A shelter-in-place order was issued for the surrounding area and lifted more than five hours later. Officials said all the deaths occurred on the plant site.
“You had to get really close to the facility to smell it,” Sigman said.
The leak required a large-scale decontamination operation in which people had to remove their clothes and be sprayed down, authorities said.
Morrisey said it's believed the local air quality and water supply were unaffected.
Catalyst Refiners works to remove silver from what remains of chemical processes. Ames Goldsmith Corp., the owner of Catalyst Refiners, said it is saddened by the deaths and its thoughts were with all those impacted and their families.
“This is an unfathomably difficult time,” company President Frank Barber said in a statement released at the briefing. “Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues and their families.”
Ames Goldsmith promised to work with local, state and federal officials as they investigate the leak. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into what happened, a spokesperson said, adding that the agency has six months to complete its examination.
Silver is in a number of items ranging from circuit boards and other electronics, photographic and X-Ray films and jewelry. Nitric acid is used to dissolve materials, leaving behind silver nitrate that can be processed to recover pure silver. Recovery businesses can also crush or sandblast items with silver and use magnets or differences in density to sort out the precious metal.
Sigman said Ames Goldsmith recovers silver from the various plants at the Institute complex "and they'll use it again. When they vacuum their carpets in their office, they recover so many thousands of dollars’ worth of silver out of it just vacuuming their carpets.”
The plant is located near Institute, a community about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Charleston, the state capital. The plant is in a region known as West Virginia’s “chemical valley,” although many plants that lined the area along the Kanawha River and produced hazardous materials have closed or changed ownership in the past several decades.
Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee,.contributed to this report.
Following a chemical spill in the region, a decontamination tent is shown outside of WVU Medicine Thomas Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in South Charleston, W.Va. (AP Photo/John Raby)
Kanawha County Commission Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman speaks at a news conference Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Charleston, W.Va. (AP Photo/John Raby)
Kanawha County Commission Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman speaks at a news conference Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Charleston, W.Va. (AP Photo/John Raby)
Police block a road near a chemical plant where a leak occurred Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Institute, W.Va. (AP Photo/John Raby)
