Republican senators are weighing whether to strip a proposed $1 billion security package from a broader immigration enforcement bill as GOP lawmakers acknowledge they have not assembled enough support to pass the measure with the add-on intact. The proposal would provide funding for security work at the White House complex and for President Donald Trump’s ballroom, but it has become a focal point of intra-party friction as debate continues over cost, oversight, and the bill’s final shape.
The question of whether to keep the security money has intensified even as Republicans press to use a complicated budget strategy to move the underlying immigration enforcement funding. The security push was pressured by the White House, Republicans have said they want to pair it with a measure aimed at restoring funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, and yet some Senate Republicans have warned that they do not have the votes.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Wednesday that the bill was “back to square one” without the security money because “the votes are not there.” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., meanwhile described the effort to add the security package as a “bad idea” and said he did not think there was enough backing to pass it, even if it were reduced.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also pointed to procedural and rules problems, acknowledging “ongoing vote issues” while leaders try to gauge Republican support and citing “ongoing parliamentarian issues” as they consider what would be allowed under Senate rules. The text of the bill, lawmakers said, has not been released yet, leaving the final negotiations to unfold behind closed doors.
As the GOP fight over the security add-on plays out, Democrats have criticized Republicans for trying to fund Trump’s ballroom even as voters express concern about affordability. Democrats have also said they would use the amendment process to try to block or restrict elements of a separate settlement fund that the White House has linked to Trump, according to reporting in the cluster.
One complication for Republicans has been an “anti-weaponization” fund that is part of a settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Republicans have been discussing potential last-minute language to set parameters for the settlement and compensation for recipients, and reporting said those discussions were informed by two people familiar with private negotiations who asked for anonymity.
The negotiations also hinge on how amendments could move under the bill’s path in the Senate. The cluster reporting said Democrats are considering amendments that could pass to block the new fund outright or ban any payments to Trump supporters who harmed law enforcement officers in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, even as Republicans attempt to advance the bill through a budget maneuver requiring only a simple majority and no Democratic votes.
Some GOP senators have also raised broader concerns about the Secret Service request behind the security proposal. Under that request, about $220 million would go to security improvements related to the ballroom, with the remainder funding a new screening center for visitors as well as training and other security measures, according to the reporting. Tillis argued the bill should not have included other security improvements, describing it as “just giving everybody the ‘billion-dollar ballroom.’”
Other lawmakers said they wanted more detail from the Secret Service and that the funding request did not match public priorities. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., questioned the decision, asking: “People “can’t afford groceries and gasoline and healthcare, and we’re going to do a billion dollars for a ballroom?”
The broader effort to move immigration enforcement funding also faces additional political and procedural constraints. The cluster reporting said Democrats have blocked the ICE and Border Patrol funding for months in protest of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown, and Republicans are now trying to work through the Senate using reconciliation. Still, passage requires parliamentarian signoff and GOP unity, and Thune said Wednesday that the negotiation remained underway.
At the same time, Trump has publicly pressed Senate Republicans on several issues. The cluster reported that Trump urged Republicans to fire Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough after her comments suggested some of the $1 billion security proposal could not remain in the bill. Trump also renewed calls for the Senate to pass the SAVE Act, which would require voters to prove U.S. citizenship, and to end the filibuster, according to the report.
The GOP divisions have also been shaped by Trump’s endorsement in a Texas primary runoff. The cluster reported that Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, and it said some Senate Republicans privately fumed that the endorsement could complicate their political standing ahead of November, with senators viewing Cornyn as the stronger general-election candidate. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday the House would pass the bill “whatever form it takes,” leaving uncertainty about how any Senate changes would be received in the chamber.