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WASHINGTON — The Senate early Thursday adopted a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement and the eventual reopening of the Department of 91Ö±²¥land Security.

Republicans pushed through the plan on a nearly party-line vote of 50-48. It came after an overnight marathon of rapid-fire votes, known as a vote-a-rama, in which the GOP beat back a series of Democratic proposals aimed at addressing the high cost of health care, housing, food and energy. The debate put the two parties’ dueling messages on vivid display six months before the midterm elections.

Republicans, who are using the budget plan to lay the groundwork to eventually push through a filibuster-proof bill providing a multiyear funding stream for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, used the all-night session to highlight their hard-line stance on border security, seeking to portray Democrats as unwilling to safeguard the country.

Democrats tried and failed to add a series of changes aimed at addressing cost-of-living issues, seizing the opportunity to hammer Republicans as out of touch with and unwilling to act on the concerns of everyday Americans.

The budget blueprint is a crucial piece of Republicans’ plan to fund the Department of 91Ö±²¥land Security and end a shutdown that has lasted for more than two months. After Democrats refused to fund immigration enforcement without new restrictions on agents’ tactics and conduct, the GOP struck a deal with them to pass a spending bill that would fund everything but Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. Republicans said they would fund those agencies through a special budget bill that Democrats could not block.

“We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Budget Committee chair. “Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril.”

The budget measure now goes to the House, which must adopt it before lawmakers in both chambers can draft the legislation funding immigration enforcement. That bill will provide yet another opportunity for a vote-a-rama even closer to the November election.

This article originally appeared in .

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