Senate Republicans Move to Fund Trump’s Big Ballroom — and Immigration Enforcement

Senate Republicans have advanced their $70 billion legislation to fund immigration enforcement and President Trump’s ballroom project on a party-line vote. Democrats are more than happy for the looming political fight over the ballroom, with top Budget Committee Democrat Jeff Merkley calling it a “gold-plated, billion-dollar” boondoggle. GOP lawmakers have been working on the immigration enforcement funding legislation for nearly two months. The goal of the bill is to keep ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations, all of which have been involved in the president’s mass deportation campaign, funded for the remainder of Mr. Trump’s term. When the Senate Judiciary Committee released its provision of the immigration enforcement bill earlier this month, many were caught off guard by the inclusion of a $1 billion provision for the “East Wing Modernization Project” — a project Mr. Trump had previously said would be funded by private donations. That inclusion came after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month and the President’s subsequent demands for the ballroom’s swift construction. Republicans have tried to sell the ballroom as a security necessity, though some are worried that such a funding deal would seem out of touch at a time when energy prices are spiking and inflation has reached its highest point in years. The ballroom funding is not currently included in the legislation due to procedural issues, though Republicans plan to attach it to the current bill once it comes to the floor. Democrats believe that forcing Republican lawmakers to own the ballroom measure could be a real win for them and Democratic challengers across the country. “Here we are with this bill that has in it the gold-plated, billion-dollar ballroom boondoggle,” Merkley said at the hearing. The committee’s chairman, Senator Lindsey Graham, cited the Correspondents’ Dinner shooting as a reason that the ballroom ought to be built with public dollars. “The [Correspondents’ Dinner] episode should wake us all up a little bit. If a Democrat president had proposed trying to find a place on campus at the White House [that was] more secure, that makes sense to me,” Mr. Graham said. “What if it had been five guys rushing the [dinner]?”“I don’t think that this is a vanity project at all,” the chairman said. The Budget Committee ended up advancing the bill in a party-line vote, 11–10. One Democrat, Senator Jacky Rosen, says she plans to offer two amendments on the floor to take all of the $1 billion for the East Wing project and direct it toward grant programs for state and local law enforcement. How certain Republican senators vote on those measures will almost certainly show up in Democratic candidates’ ads later this year if GOP lawmakers go along with the president’s ballroom demands. Democrats also plan to offer amendments to kill the president’s $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund, which the Justice Department plans to use to pay individuals who were targets of law enforcement investigations and prosecutions during the Biden administration.Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat on the committee, said Wednesday that he will offer an amendment on the floor to shut down the weaponization fund. “You may have some support,” Mr. Graham said with a laugh.

Senate Republicans Move to Fund Trump’s Big Ballroom — and Immigration Enforcement

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