Republicans strip Trump ballroom money from immigration bill

Senate Republicans on Wednesday stripped up to $1 billion in security funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed White House ballroom and the Secret Service from a revised immigration enforcement bill.

GOP leaders privately concluded that the funding proposal risked derailing the broader immigration bill, both politically and procedurally, according to several media reports.

The provision also sparked political concerns among some Senate Republicans, who worried the funding could make the party appear out of touch as voters struggle with high costs ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Trump had personally pushed lawmakers to authorize the funding for the controversial ballroom project and the Secret Service. Trump administration officials argued the money was necessary in light of the alleged April 25 assassination attempt against Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton.

Administration officials have said only about $200 million would have gone toward the ballroom while the rest would have supported other Secret Service upgrades.

The updated bill Wednesday from the Senate Judiciary Committee came after weeks of internal Republican debate over whether to keep the requested funds in a broader reconciliation package that would send tens of billions of dollars to two agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection.

Republicans are trying to pass the measure through a process known as reconciliation, which allows budget-related legislation to clear the Senate with a simple majority instead of 60 votes.

There are only 53 Republican senators, meaning that the GOP majority needs some of the 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats to vote for a reconciliation measure if it is to be passed.

In May, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that an earlier version of the bill that included funding for ballroom security could not be passed through reconciliation because it did not comply with the so-called Byrd Rule. That rule bars provisions in bills that are deemed to be extraneous to federal spending or outside the jurisdiction of the committees that drafted them.

If the ballroom provision had remained in the bill, Democrats would have challenged it and forced Republicans to meet the higher threshold.

The White House pushed back Wednesday on the idea that Republicans affirmatively chose to drop the provision, arguing that the language was removed due to the parliamentarian’s ruling.

“The parliamentarian’s decision was reported weeks ago,” a White House spokesperson said. “This framing is false as it implies that Republicans removed it deliberately rather than under parliamentary pressure.”

However, after the parliamentarian’s decision last month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the bill would be redrafted to include the funding and comply with the Byrd Rule.

“We’ll be trying a new approach,” Thune said at the time.

He noted that last year, it took five attempts to win the parliamentarian’s approval of a tax-and-spending bill.

“You just kind of continue to figure out, how do we address the concerns that are raised there, and the pathway to do that?” Thune said.