The GOP plan to slip $1 billion in funding for President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project into a Homeland Security reconciliation bill is already on life support, as a number of Republicans are either opposing it outright or expressing concerns.
Trump has long claimed his ballroom project, which has already seen the East Wing torn down for a new structure that will be larger than the main White House building itself, will be funded entirely with private donor money.
The GOP legislation would designate the bill specifically for “security” features, ostensibly putting constraints on how it can be used — but in practice, the Trump administration has tried to argue in federal court that any feature of the ballrom could theoretically be for security.
Regardless, reported Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett, the fight in the Senate is now “getting real” as Republicans can only “afford to lose up to three votes and admin needs to answer lots of questions on the $1 billion for security.”
“I have a feeling that it won’t be in the bill or it won’t pass the Byrd test,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), referring to a rule requiring all provisions in a reconciliation bill be primarily budgetary items.
“The ballroom itself should be paid for with private donations as the president indicated,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), meanwhile, said, “I actually think a ballroom is probably needed. That’s probably the most defensible place in America for a large ballroom to be built … but in terms of the amount of money that will go into the ballroom, it’s fair to debate that.”
All of this comes as Republicans try to navigate the broader purpose of the reconciliation bill, which is to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the remainder of Trump’s term and sideline an issue that caused the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security after federal occupations of cities around the country drew backlash.
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