Senate Republicans toiled on Tuesday to push forward with a bill to fund President Trump’s immigration crackdown, hoping that a clear statement from the administration that it was abandoning the idea of a $1.8 billion fund to pay people claiming to have been victimized by the federal government would be enough to unlock the needed votes.
The plan for the fund had generated an intense bipartisan backlash, and many Senate Republicans indicated last month that they would not agree to move forward with the legislation as long as the fund remained an issue.
On Tuesday, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, attempted to take it off the table, testifying before a House committee that the Justice Department was backing away from the plan to create what it had called an anti-weaponization fund as part of a settlement the president reached with the Internal Revenue Service.
“We’re not moving forward with the fund, period,” Mr. Blanche said, testifying under oath before a House Appropriations subcommittee.
“Not moving forward ever?” Representative Grace Meng, Democrat of New York, pressed.
“Correct,” Mr. Blanche replied.
It was not clear whether his statement would be enough to mollify Republicans who had been outraged about the idea of the fund, who are all but certain to be faced with politically difficult votes on the topic when the $70 billion immigration crackdown bill reaches the floor. But G.O.P. leaders hoped it would be enough to unite their party around the measure and allow votes on it in the Senate as soon as Wednesday.
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, had said at a news conference earlier Tuesday that he was relying on Mr. Blanche to clear the way for such a breakthrough after the acting attorney general had told him privately that he would provide a “very definitive, very clear” statement on the fund in his testimony.
Afterward, Mr. Thune said he thought that Mr. Blanche had delivered a “definitive” message — “I thought he was good,” he told reporters at the Capitol — but said the bill was still a “work in progress,” and indicated that he was still trying to line up the votes to move forward.
“We’ve been talking to our members, continue to dialogue with them, see where it goes,” Mr. Thune said.
Still, Mr. Blanche’s testimony did not solve all of Republicans’ problems with the measure, which aims to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for the remainder of Mr. Trump’s term.
He told the House panel that he was not backing away from another provision of the deal that Mr. Trump reached with the I.R.S.: one that protects him, his family and his businesses from audits of tax returns they have already filed. That could still prove to be a political liability for Senate Republicans, as Democrats seek to portray them as helping to enrich a billionaire at a time when affordability remains the overwhelming issue concerning voters heading into the midterm elections.
The immigration legislation, which was supposed to be a point of unity for Republicans, has in recent weeks devolved instead into a flashpoint for tensions between Mr. Trump and members of his party in Congress. G.O.P. senators had already agreed last month under political pressure to drop $1 billion in security funding that the White House had sought to include in the bill for Mr. Trump’s ballroom project, which also generated a bipartisan backlash.
On Tuesday, in an indication that Republicans were trying to insulate themselves further from political blowback over the president’s fund, they agreed to drop roughly $1.5 billion from the bill that was to have gone to the attorney general’s office for a broad swath of Justice Department “missions,” according to a leadership aide who insisted on anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Some senators had worried that money could be used for a fund compensating the president’s allies.
Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, all Republicans, have continued to express concerns about the fund. Mr. Tillis even said he would support a Democratic amendment to block the Justice Department from revisiting the creation of such a fund in the future.
Mr. Thune had said on Monday that he feared if such a provision made it into the bill, Mr. Trump could veto it. Neither the president nor the White House has made an official statement disavowing the fund. And while Mr. Blanche clearly stated the administration was not moving forward with it, he declined under questioning from Democrats to put it in writing.
At the same time, Senate Democrats have promised to force Republicans to take tough votes on the subject.
“If Republicans are really concerned about Trump’s corruption, then prove it,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said on Tuesday. He challenged Republicans to support legislation that would bar any future attempt to create such a fund.
“Support the amendment to ban the slush fund and Trump’s blank check to commit tax fraud,” he said.
Minho Kim contributed reporting
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times.
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