Senate Republicans drop plans for $1bn to fund security at Trump’s ballroom | US politics
Senate Republicans on Wednesday formally abandoned Donald Trump’s attempt to spend $1 billion on security improvements to the White House ballroom as it became clear the president’s request for money could jeopardize long-term funding for immigration enforcement.
The Senate judiciary committee last month included funding for security improvements related to the new ballroom in a broader measure that would authorize $70 billion in spending by agencies involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign during his term.
On Wednesday, the committee released a revised text that no longer mentions money; That text was included in legislation called the Safe America Act, which advanced that afternoon on a party line vote of 53 to 46.
The ballroom security proposal had triggered a major row in Congress, with Senate Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer saying his party would fight the funding “with all the tools we have.” That included proposed changes to the bill that could force vulnerable Republicans into tough votes ahead of November midterm elections in which the GOP will assert its control of Congress.
The possibility of passage of the funding was complicated when Senate lawmakers found that the money needed for the ballroom did not meet budget reconciliation rules that Republicans had invoked to get around Democrats’ filibuster in the Senate. Trump’s announcement of a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-proliferation” fund to compensate his allies drew objections from congressional Republicans and sparked talk of restricting the funding in the compromise bill.
Both developments slowed the bill’s progress, and Republicans failed to meet Trump’s June 1 deadline to get the bill on his desk.
On Tuesday, acting attorney general Todd Blanche said the government had withdrawn that proposal and, in a sign that party leaders believe they have cleared those hurdles, Republicans are expected to begin the voting process on Thursday on the measure that would allocate $13 billion to Customs and Border Protection, $31 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $2.5 billion to the Department of Homeland Security.
On the Senate floor Wednesday, Schumer praised Democrats for pushing the GOP to revise the bill.
“Even without Trump’s billion-dollar taxpayer-funded ballroom, which Democrats successfully killed despite Republicans’ best efforts, this law is rotten from start to finish,” the minority leader said.
He repeated his threat to use “vote-seeking,” the process by which senators propose changes to bills passed using the reconciliation procedure, to force Republicans to publicly defend Trump’s policies.
“Republicans will have to vote on costs. Republicans will have to vote on tariffs. Republicans will have to vote on Trump’s disastrous war with Iran. Republicans will have to vote on ICE and border patrol abuse of power,” he said.
A White House official downplayed the exclusion of the ballroom security fund, saying: “The parliamentarian’s decision was reported weeks ago. This framing is incorrect because it implies Republicans eliminated it on purpose and not under parliamentary pressure.”
Trump said the $400 million cost of the ballroom to be built on the site of the East Wing of the White House would be covered by private donors, but his administration requested Congress approve funding for the Secret Service to secure the new building.
It quickly became clear that some Republicans were nervous about voting to spend taxpayer dollars on anything ballroom-related, as voters were exposed to high gas prices related to the war against Iran.
The Republicans’ compromise bill was a response to Democrats’ refusal to vote on any measure that would fund ICE after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens during a massive operation against immigrants in Minneapolis in January.
Democrats demanded the Trump administration agree to tailor reforms to federal agents’ tactics and practices, but negotiations broke down, leading to a weeks-long partial shutdown of DHS; This was resolved only after Democrats agreed to vote for a bill funding department operations unrelated to immigration enforcement.
Republicans then opted to use the reconciliation procedure to fund ICE and equivalent agencies for the remainder of Trump’s term, arguing that a long-term measure would ensure Democrats could not cut funding to the agencies again.
