Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that Senate Democrats will move to permanently stop President Donald Trump’s controversial $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that is aimed at providing compensation to those the Trump Administration deems to have been wronged by the federal government—and to “ensure no president can ever do this again.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday afternoon that it “disagrees strongly” with a federal judge’s decision to temporarily block the fund, but that it “will abide by the Court’s ruling.” Under the judge’s order, the Administration is barred from proceeding with plans to form the fund or make any potential payouts using it for at least two weeks. A hearing for arguments over whether to extend the order is scheduled for June 12. 

The DOJ statement came shortly after Axios and Bloomberg Law reported that the Trump Administration planned to drop the fund. One unnamed Administration official told Axios that the fund is “dead for now.”

In response to the reports, Schumer said that Senate Democrats would seek to legally bar the fund and anything similar from being created moving forward.

“If Trump and Republicans are truly abandoning this corrupt scheme, they should have zero problem banning it in law,” Schumer said while speaking on the Senate floor. “This week, Senate Democrats will push legislation to ban this slush fund and ensure no president can ever do this again. Trump’s word is nowhere near enough.”

Read more: What to Know About the DOJ’s $1.8B ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ That Could Compensate Trump Allies Investigated Under Biden

Schumer said that if Republicans again seek to use budget reconciliation—an expedited process for considering legislation under which Congress can pass spending-related bills with a simple majority—to push through a package funding federal immigration agencies, as they are expected to do later this week, he would propose an amendment to “ban the slush fund permanently and forever.”

He vowed that “Democrats will make Republicans vote on [the fund] no matter what.”

“Trump is claiming that the slush fund is dead for now, but Democrats will not stop until it’s well and truly buried. It can never see the light of day,” Schumer went on. “Democrats are going to make sure this slush fund is dead and cannot be revived, just like we did with the ballroom.” Trump requested roughly $1 billion for his renovation of the White House’s East Wing, which includes his presidential ballroom, citing security concerns following an assassination attempt against him at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The funding request was ultimately dropped by Senate Republicans.

“If Republicans try to meddle with the appropriations process to do Trump’s bidding, we’ll fight it there too,” Schumer said. “And if Republicans try to use toothless ‘constraints’ to make the slush fund more palatable, we will press them to dismantle it entirely.”

In a “Dear Colleague” letter earlier on Monday, the New York Senator had laid out plans for Democrats’ to “launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door” by introducing amendments to the reconciliation package, calling the fund Trump’s “most brazen act of self-dealing” and “one of the most corrupt schemes ever launched by a president.”

The DOJ announced the creation of the anti-weaponization fund last month as a part of an agreement to settle Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The move has drawn backlash from both sides of the aisle, as well as the pushback in the courts. 

Critics have noted that the fund could be used to benefit Trump allies who were prosecuted under the Biden Administration, including the hundreds of people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021—a possibility that top Trump Administration officials have declined to rule out. 

When asked at a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing last month whether members of far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers could be eligible for payments under the fund, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who described the fund as “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress,” said that “anybody in this country can apply.”

Two officers who helped protect the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots have also sued the Trump Administration to block the fund. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that the fund is “illegal,” describing it as a “taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.”

Schumer said in his “Dear Colleague” letter that “the courts will not be the only line of defense,” vowing to investigate all parties involved in the approval of the settlement, including the DOJ, the Treasury Department, the White House, and “who stands to benefit” from its payouts.  

Across the aisle, Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said on Monday that “we have a lot of members who are concerned” over the fund impeding progress on a $72 billion reconciliation package to fund DHS through 2029.

“It makes everything way harder than it should be,” Thune said.

Following the reports later in the day that the Administration planned to drop the fund, the Senate Majority Leader told reporters, “I do think the best way to handle it is if the Administration decides to shut it down themselves.”

Senators left Capitol Hill on May 21 without voting on the package amid disputes over the fund. During a reportedly heated closed-door meeting with Blanche ahead of the long Memorial Day recess, Republican lawmakers demanded the acting Attorney General put guardrails on the fund. 

“Under what circumstances would it ever make sense to provide restitution for people who were either pled guilty or were found guilty in a court of law?” Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina asked, calling the fund a “payout for punks.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called the fund “utterly stupid” and “morally wrong.”

In the House, meanwhile, Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi joined together to introduce legislation last month to block the use of taxpayer money for the fund. 

“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to protect taxpayer dollars and oversee federal spending,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “Taxpayer dollars will not become a discretionary payout fund. Transparency is not optional. Accountability is not negotiable.”

Schumer said in his letter that simply taking steps to “manage” the fund is not enough, a sentiment he echoed later on the Senate floor. 

“For something as inherently corrupt as this slush fund, half measures won’t cut it,” he said. “This is corruption in broad daylight, and Republicans are foolish to think they can hide in the shadows.”