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

WASHINGTON– Republicans returning to Washington on Monday face questions over a billion-dollar Senate security proposal that could help fund President Donald Trump’s ballroom, as Democrats say they will try to reject 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 security proposal came after a man was accused of attempting to assassinate Trump at 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 colleagues Monday morning, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would combat this in other ways, including pushing the Senate parliamentarian to remove money for ballroom security from the budget bill and proposing amendments requiring Republicans to vote on it.

“The Republican-controlled Congress is preparing to respond to this moment with a party-line deficit-reducing bill that pumps billions of additional taxpayer dollars into a rogue ICE operation and a billion-dollar ballroom, while doing nothing to end the illegal war in Iran or alleviate the Republican affordability crisis facing working families,” Schumer wrote in the letter.

It is unclear whether the security money will have sufficient Republican support. The House has not yet released its bill, but the Senate is expected to begin voting on its version of the bill this week.

While most Republican lawmakers remained silent on the proposal as they vacationed outside Washington, some publicly questioned 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 Wittman, a Virginia Republican who was at the Capitol last week to deliver a brief gavel during a pro forma session of the House.

“I want to know the exact nature of the spending that would be on security. So I think it’s a little premature to look at that and say, you know, yes or no,” Wittman said.

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

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

The Senate bill would designate funds for the U.S. Secret Service, including for “security adjustments and improvements” related to the ballroom project, which Trump and other Republicans have been pushing for since Cole Tomas Allen was accused of storming the April 25 media dinner at the Washington Hilton with guns and knives.

The legislation says the money would be used to improve the ballroom project, “including above-ground and below-grade security features,” but specifies that it cannot be used for non-security features.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle praised Republicans last week for including money for the “long overdue” project, saying it would “provide the U.S. Secret Service with the resources it needs to fully harden the White House complex, in addition to the USSS’s many other critical missions.”

The White House said in court documents that the East Wing project would be “heavily fortified,” including bomb shelters, military installations and a medical center beneath the ballroom. Trump said it should include 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 last month said it could continue in the meantime.