People ‘can’t afford groceries and gasoline and healthcare, and we’re going to do a billion dollars for a ballroom?’
Senate Republican leaders on Thursday are expected to abandon a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump‘s ballroom amid backlash from members of their own party.
Pressured by the White House, Republicans tried to add the money to a roughly $70 billion bill to restore funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. But the security proposal met with opposition from some GOP lawmakers who are questioning the timing of the request, the cost, and how the taxpayer dollars would be used.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged “ongoing vote issues” on Wednesday as leaders tried to measure Republican support and figure out what will be allowed in the bill under the chamber’s rules.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters Wednesday that the bill was “back to square one” without the security money because “the votes are not there.”
Thune hopes to pass the bill this week and send it to the House before leaving for a weeklong Memorial Day recess. But the bill’s text has still not been released as leaders were wrangling over the security proposal and new GOP concerns over the Trump administration’s $1.776 billion settlement fund.
Republican senators were set to meet with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday as they finalized the text and decided whether to put parameters on the settlement, which was designed to compensate Trump’s allies who believe they have been politically persecuted. Thune told reporters that senators have questions about the fund and want to know “how we might make sure that it’s fenced in appropriately.”
The last-minute scramble comes as Democrats have criticized Republicans for trying to fund Trump’s ballroom when voters are concerned about basic affordability issues — and as some GOP lawmakers have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump. Several GOP senators have spoken out against the settlement, which was announced this week, and many were upset by the president’s endorsement Tuesday of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the party primary runoff next week against Sen. John Cornyn.
