Senate Republicans appeared ready on Wednesday to jettison a politically divisive plan to provide $1 billion in security funds for President Trump’s White House ballroom project in a filibuster-proof immigration bill, after a mini-revolt in their ranks over including it.
“My understanding is that the security money has come out, and my understanding is it’s because the votes aren’t there,” said Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, as he left a meeting of Republican senators.
The bill was still being finalized and G.O.P. leaders declined to comment on what would be included. It was not yet clear, for instance, whether they would attempt to tuck general funds for the Secret Service into the measure that could be tapped for the same purpose without being explicitly tied to the ballroom.
But the move to excise it from the legislation, which senators expect to come up for votes on Thursday, showed that Republicans did not have the stomach to back Mr. Trump’s pet project outright. It was a blow to the White House that reflected the limits of Mr. Trump’s power over Senate Republicans, who have put up relatively little resistance to his demands during his second term.
Republicans had included the money in legislation they plan to push through Congress on party-line votes that would provide about $72 billion for Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown.
But it hit immediate snags. The Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian ruled on Saturday that the provision ran afoul of the rules Republicans are using to shield the measure from a Democratic filibuster, requiring the party to drop it or try to revise it so it could be included.
And as Democrats harshly criticized Republicans for their proposal and vowed to make a political issue of it, several G.O.P. senators said that they could not vote to fund Mr. Trump’s ballroom project, which polls show is unpopular.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Trump suggested that Senate Republicans to fire the Senate’s parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, accusing her of blocking Republican priorities. But senators batted down the idea.
The decision to strike the ballroom funding suggested that Mr. Trump was already reaping the legislative consequences of his campaign to exact political retribution on Republicans who have opposed him.
Just days after Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana lost his bid for a third term to a Trump-backed primary challenger, he had told reporters that he would oppose giving money to the president’s ballroom project.
”When I go back to Louisiana and I talk to people, this is not — I mean, they can’t afford groceries and gasoline and health care,” Mr. Cassidy said. “And we’re going to do a billion dollars for a ballroom?”
Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, who announced last year that he would retire in the face of withering criticism from the president, also said he opposed the funding. Two other Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who is facing a tough re-election fight, expressed reservations about supporting it.
The White House was seeking the money both to finance the project and to strengthen its case against a lawsuit seeking to block the project, by showing that Congress had blessed it.
Officials had argued that the money would be used only for security, and Mr. Trump has said that the ballroom itself would be paid for with private donations.
Even with the provision removed, Democrats still plan to put Republicans on the spot over the ballroom during a marathon series of votes on the budget bill.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and minority leader, said members of his party would “force Senate Republicans to vote on amendment after amendment about Trump’s ballroom,” among other issues, adding in a social media post: “They will not be able to hide.”
But the change would likely clear the way for faster passage of the measure by the closely divided House, where Republicans in competitive districts are concerned about a politically difficult vote.
”Whatever they send us, we’ll try to pass expeditiously,” said Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican.
The dispute over the ballroom project had threatened to derail the larger immigration enforcement measure, which aims to fund Mr. Trump’s deportation crackdown through the remainder of his term.
Republicans began working on the bill after Democrats refused to support funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection without new restrictions on federal officers, which the G.O.P. opposed.
Carl Hulse contributed reporting.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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