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Dems Vow to Fight $1B Plan for Ballroom05/11 06:12
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans returning to Washington on Monday are facing
questions about a $1 billion Senate security proposal that could help pay for
President Donald Trump's ballroom as Democrats say they will try to defeat it.
Senate Republicans added the money for White House security to a spending
bill that would restore funding for immigration enforcement agencies that
Democrats have blocked since February. The steep security proposal was put
forward after a man was charged with trying to assassinate Trump at the White
House Correspondents' Association dinner last month.
Republicans are using a partisan budget maneuver to push the spending
legislation through Congress without any Democratic votes. But in a letter to
colleagues Monday morning, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said
Democrats will fight it in other ways, including by pushing the Senate
parliamentarian to strike the ballroom security money from the budget bill and
offering amendments forcing Republicans to vote on it.
"The Republican-controlled Congress is preparing to answer this moment with
a deficit-busting, party-line bill that pours billions more taxpayer dollars
into a rogue ICE operation and a billion-dollar ballroom, while doing nothing
to end the illegal war in Iran or ease the Republican affordability crisis
bearing down on working families," Schumer wrote in the letter.
It's unclear if the security money will even have enough backing among
Republicans. The House has not released its bill yet, but the Senate is
expected to start voting on its version of the legislation this week.
While most GOP lawmakers have remained quiet on the proposal as they spent
their recess out of Washington, some have publicly questioned whether they
would support it.
"I'm going to look at it very carefully and make sure those things are in
the national interest," said Rep. Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who was in
the Capitol last week to briefly gavel in a pro forma session of the House.
"I want to know the exact nature of the expenditures that would go there for
security. So I think it's a little premature to look at that and say, you know,
yes or no to it," Wittman said.
Wittman wants to better understand the details of the Senate proposal and
"how it's part of what the total construction cost is," he said.
Trump has said the ballroom's construction would cost $400 million and use
private funds, but he had not proposed a number for security costs.
The Senate bill would designate the money for the U.S. Secret Service,
including for "security adjustments and upgrades" related to the ballroom
project, which Trump and other Republicans have been pushing since Cole Tomas
Allen was charged with storming the April 25 media dinner at the Washington
Hilton with guns and knives.
The legislation says the money would support enhancements to the ballroom
project, "including above-ground and below-ground security features," but
specifies it may not be used for non-security elements.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle praised Republicans last week for
including the money for the "long overdue" project, saying it would "provide
the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and
completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other
critical missions for the USSS."
The White House has said in court documents that the East Wing project would
be "heavily fortified," including bomb shelters, military installations and a
medical facility underneath the ballroom. Trump has said it should include
bulletproof glass and be able to repel drone attacks.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to block construction
of the project, but a federal appeals court said last month that it can
continue in the meantime.
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