Democrats vow to fight $1 billion Senate security proposal for White House ballroom

Washington– Republicans returning to Washington on Monday face questions about a $1 billion Senate security proposal that could help fund President Donald Trump’s chambers, with Democrats saying they will try to defeat him.

Senate Republicans added money for White House security to a spending bill that would restore funding for immigration enforcement agencies that Democrats have blocked since February. This strict security proposal was put forward after a man was accused of trying to assassinate Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month.

Republicans are using a partisan budget maneuver to push spending legislation through Congress without any Democratic votes. But in a letter to his colleagues Monday morning, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would fight it in other ways, including by pressuring the Senate parliamentarian to remove floor security funds from the budget bill and offer amendments that would force Republicans to vote on them.

“The Republican-controlled Congress is poised to respond to this moment with a deficit bill that pours billions of taxpayer dollars into a rogue ICE operation and a $1 billion ballroom, while doing nothing to end the illegal war in Iran or alleviate the Republican affordability crisis affecting working families,” Schumer wrote in the letter.

It is unclear whether the escrow money will gain enough support among Republicans. The House of Representatives has not yet passed the bill, but the Senate is expected to begin voting on its version of the legislation this week.

While most GOP lawmakers remained quiet about the proposal while vacationing outside Washington, some have publicly wondered whether they would support it.

“I’m going to look at it very carefully and make sure these things are in the national interest,” said Rep. Rob Whitman, a Virginia Republican who was at the Capitol last week to speak briefly at a pro forma House session.

“I want to know exactly what the expenditures are going to be on security,” Whitman said. “So I think it’s too early to look at that and say, you know, yes or no to that.”

Whitman said he wants to better understand the details of the Senate proposal and “how it is part of the total cost of construction.”

Trump said construction of the hall would cost $400 million and would use private funds, but he did not suggest a figure for security costs.

The Senate bill allocates funds for the U.S. Secret Service, including “security modifications and upgrades” related to the ballroom project, which Trump and other Republicans have been pressing since Cole Thomas Allen was accused of storming into the April 25 media dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel with guns and knives.

The legislation says the money will support improvements to the ballroom project, “including above-ground and underground security features,” but states it may not be used for non-security items.

White House spokesman Davis Engel praised Republicans last week for including money for the “long-overdue” project, saying it “will provide the US Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely strengthen the White House complex, as well as many other critical missions of the USSS.”

The East Wing project would be “heavily fortified,” including bunkers, military installations and a medical facility below the ballroom, the White House said in court documents. Trump said the plane should have bulletproof glass and be able to repel drone attacks.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to block construction of the project, but a federal appeals court said last month that it could proceed in the meantime.