Ballroom won’t be funded after Senate GOP drops $1 billion Trump security request
In a blow to the White House, Senate Republicans will remove President Donald Trump’s request for $1 billion in Secret Service funding to help with the ballroom project from the immigration enforcement funding bill, amid internal objections.
“I’ve been told the ballroom money has run out,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters after the GOP lunch meeting Wednesday, adding that he “wanted to read the text.”
The decision to cut security funding came after a double whammy: Senate Rep. Elizabeth MacDonough ruled over the weekend that the provision did not meet strict rules governing what Republicans can put into the filibuster bill because it funds activities outside the Judiciary Committee’s purview.
And a few GOP senators expressed public concerns On the inclusion of any ballroom funding in a bill for immigration enforcement. A larger share of Republicans privately opposed it, and the mood soured further Tuesday over anger over Trump’s decision to support Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the upcoming GOP primary round in Texas.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Republicans at lunch Wednesday that both factors — parliamentary matters and vote counting — remain obstacles to including Secret Service security funding, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.
Kennedy told reporters that he, like the other GOP senator, one of the two, believed the entire Secret Service provisions would be excluded.
Speaking after lunch, Thune said that negotiations are continuing and the draft text has not been finalized yet.
The draft legislation explicitly mentions the East Wing Modernization Project and states that $1 billion in Secret Service funding could be used for the ballroom project’s “above and underground security features.”
This promise was one of the top priorities for the White House. It became clear earlier this month Passage of the bill, including the language, would constitute Congress’ approval of the ballroom project as a whole. The administration is currently stuck in court after a federal judge ruled earlier this year that the project was not properly authorized by lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview late last week that the White House had given them proposed legislation on the project.
Republicans are privately preparing for an angry response to Trump’s decision to cut security funding, according to two people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations. Even before Senate GOP leaders made that decision, the president Called for MacDonough to be fired In a Truth Social post.
But there had been signs for days that the language was problematic. The administration sought to reassure senators that only $220 million of the Secret Service’s $1 billion would potentially go to the ballroom project, otherwise “hardening” the White House complex.
But GOP senators still had unanswered questions heading into Wednesday, which they saw as the unofficial deadline to decide as they rushed to send a bill to Trump’s desk this week.
Defunding the Secret Service won’t solve all the political woes Republicans face over the immigration bill.
Democrats are expected to propose an amendment targeting a new Justice Department “counterproliferation” fund created as part of the deal with Trump that could be used to compensate the president’s political allies.
Republicans believe such an amendment would garner enough GOP support to be included in the bill, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private conversations.
