Senate Republicans drop plans for $1bn to fund security at Trump’s ballroom

Senate Republicans on Wednesday formally dropped their attempt to spend $1bn on security improvements for Donald Trump’s White House ballroom, as it became clear the president’s demand for the money could jeopardize long-term funding for immigration enforcement.The Senate Judiciary Committee had last month included funding for security improvements related to the new ballroom in a broader measure that would authorize $70bn in spending for agencies involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign through the duration of his term.On Wednesday, the committee released a revised text that no longer mentioned the money, which was included in legislation dubbed the Secure America Act that advanced on a party line vote of 53-46 later that afternoon.The ballroom security proposal had triggered a major congressional standoff, with the Senate’s Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, saying his party would fight the funding “with every tool we have”. That included proposing amendments to the bill that could force vulnerable Republicans into tough votes ahead of November’s midterm elections, when the GOP will defend its control of Congress.The funding’s prospects of passage grew complicated when the Senate’s parliamentarian determined that the money for the ballroom did not comply with the rules of budget reconciliation, the procedure Republicans were relying on to get around the Democrats’ filibuster in the Senate. Trump’s announcement of a nearly $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate his allies drew objections from congressional Republicans and sparked talk of restraining the fund in the reconciliation bill.Both developments slowed the bill’s progress, and Republicans failed to reach a 1 June deadline set by Trump to have the measure on his desk.On Tuesday, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said that the government was dropping that proposal, and in a sign that party leaders believe they have overcome those obstacles, Republicans are on Thursday expected to begin the process of voting on the measure, which would allocate $13bn to Customs and Border Protection $31bn to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $2.5bn to the Department of Homeland Security, all of which is intended to be used for immigration enforcement.On the Senate floor on Wednesday, Schumer gave Democrats the credit for forcing the GOP to revise the bill.“Even without Trump’s billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded ballroom – which Democrats successfully killed despite Republicans’ best efforts – this bill is rotten through and through,” the minority leader said.He repeated his threat to use “vote-arama”, the process by which senators offer amendments to bills passed using the reconciliation procedure, to force Republicans into publicly defending 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’s abuses of power,” he said.A White House official downplayed the ballroom security funding’s exclusion, saying: “The parliamentarian’s decision was reported weeks ago. This framing is false as it implies that Republicans removed it deliberately rather than under parliamentary pressure.”Trump has said that the $400m cost of the ballroom being constructed where the White House’s East Wing used to stand will be covered by private donors, but his administration had requested Congress approve money for the Secret Service to secure the new building.It was quickly apparent that some Republicans were nervous about voting to spend taxpayer dollars on anything related to the ballroom as voters weather high gas prices related to the war on Iran.The Republican reconciliation bill is a response to Democrats’ refusal to vote for any measure that funds ICE after federal agents killed two US citizens during an intensive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis in January.Democrats demanded that the Trump administration agree to codify reforms to federal agents’ tactics and practices, but negotiations broke down, leading to a weeks-long partial shutdown of DHS that was resolved only when Democrats agreed to vote for a bill that funded departmental operations that were not related to immigration enforcement.Republicans then opted to use the reconciliation procedure to fund ICE and its counterpart agencies through the remainder of Trump’s term, arguing a long-term measure would ensure Democrats could not cut off funding to the agencies again.