Todd Blanche walked into a closed-door meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. 240,000 Department of Homeland Security employees are entering their second week without a paycheck. The Senate has abandoned the budget package, opting instead to leave Washington for the week. Republicans are refusing to fund the border guards until they secure a $1.776 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund. This pool of money is intended for January 6 rioters and others President Donald Trump believes were wrongly prosecuted. Rand Paul and Susan Collins were among the senators meeting to discuss the $1 billion request for White House security and a luxury ballroom. The punt means Congress will miss the June 1 deadline Trump set for the package. Officials describe the standoff as a breaking point for the party. 'The day arrived when the Senate just said, No,' according to AP News reporting on the defiance. The DHS remains a hollow shell. Empty lockers and silent scanners line the border crossings. The state has chosen a gilded ballroom over the survival of its own guards. The $1 billion in security money is the price of elite comfort in a collapsing capital. This anti-weaponization fund is a spoils system for the loyal. It turns the Treasury into a piggy bank for political revenge. The border guards are the collateral damage in this transaction. They are the human cost of the transition to a hollow state. The Senate will leave town this week without considering the funding for immigration enforcement. The budget process is now a vehicle for private payouts. The frontline is starving while the elite decorate their ballrooms. The state is no longer a governing apparatus. It is a mechanism to liquidate public infrastructure for elite lifestyle funding. The guards will wait another week for their bread.