Some Republicans Balk at $1B Ballroom Request

Republican senators are considering whether to drop a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Trump's ballroom after it has failed to win enough party support on Capitol Hill. Pressured by the White House, Republicans have tried to add the money to a roughly $70 billion bill to restore funding to ICE and the Border Patrol. But the security proposal has met with backlash from some GOP lawmakers who are questioning the cost and the lack of detail from the White House and Secret Service about how the taxpayer dollars would be used, the AP reports.

• People "can't afford groceries and gasoline and healthcare, and we're going to do a billion dollars for a ballroom?" asked Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost reelection in his GOP primary on Saturday after Trump endorsed one of his opponents.

Sen. John Kennedy said Wednesday that the bill was "back to square one." "My understanding is that the security money has come out, and my understanding is it's because the votes aren't there," he said after a meeting of Republican senators, per the New York Times. Sen. Thom Tillis said the effort to add the security package to the bill was a "bad idea" and he does not think there is enough backing to pass it, even if it were reduced. The text of the bill has not yet been released. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged "ongoing vote issues" as leaders try to measure Republican support, as well as "ongoing parliamentarian issues" as they try to figure out what will be allowed in the bill under the chamber's rules.

The wrangling 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 administration's $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate Trump's allies who believe they have been persecuted, 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.

• "There's always a consequence with taking on United States senators," Thune said Wednesday. The president "obviously has his favorites and people he wants to endorse and that's his prerogative. But what we have to deal with up here is moving the agenda, and obviously that can become slightly more complicated."

• The "anti-weaponization" fund, part of a settlement that resolves Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, has unexpectedly become one of the main complications in the bill. Democrats said they would force votes to block it or place restrictions on it.
• Democrats have an opening because Republicans are trying to pass the immigration enforcement bill through a complicated budget process that requires a long series of amendment votes. Democrats are considering multiple amendments to potentially block that new fund outright or to ban any payments to Trump supporters who harmed law enforcement officers in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would "force Senate Republicans to vote on amendment after amendment about Trump's ballroom" and other issues, the Times reports.
• As Republicans challenged the settlement and parts of his agenda, Trump unloaded on the Senate in a Truth Social post. He urged Republicans to fire the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who said over the weekend that parts of the $1 billion security proposal cannot remain in the ICE and Border Patrol bill.