By Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republicans are seeking to give $1 billion in taxpayer funding to the Secret Service this year for security upgrades, including the White House ballroom.
President Donald Trump has said private donations would pay for the estimated $400 million ballroom project. The funding package text does not say how much of the new Secret Service funds will pay for the ballroom.
The proposed infusion of Secret Service funds was released late Monday as part of a nearly $72 billion package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through 2029 on a party-line vote.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s proposal includes $19 billion for CBP personnel and $7.5 billion for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s bill gives CBP nearly $3.5 billion and ICE nearly $31 billion for immigration enforcement. Additional funds from the bills would go to the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service, as well as toward border security and technology.
Trump signed a bill on Thursday to fund most of DHS through September, ending a 76-day partial government shutdown over immigration enforcement following the deaths of two Americans in Minneapolis.
SENATE REPUBLICANS AVOID 60-VOTE REQUIREMENT
Republicans in Congress have begun a process known as reconciliation to fund ICE and CBP without Democratic votes. Reconciliation allows Senate Republicans to circumvent the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation.
Republican lawmakers pushed for legislation to fund and expedite construction of a ballroom days after an alleged gunman was apprehended at last month’s White House Correspondents’ dinner, where Trump was set to speak.
Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, blamed Democrats for the historic government shutdown, casting them in a statement as “the party of open borders and ‘defund the police.'” Grassley said his panel will “help provide certainty for federal law enforcement and safer streets for American families.”
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the judiciary panel, said Republicans are going outside the traditional appropriations process to fund unpopular policies through the end of Trump’s presidency because they are in danger of losing control of Congress in November’s midterm elections. He also highlighted a contrast between the parties as Democrats campaign on affordability.
“While Americans are struggling to make ends meet as a result of President Trump’s failed policies, Republicans are focused on providing tens of billions of dollars for the president’s vanity ballroom project and cruel mass deportation campaign,” Durbin said in a statement.
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Michael Learmonth, Rod Nickel)
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