Senate Republicans revive immigration bill, axe $1bn for Trump's new White House ballroom

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - WASHINGTON — The US Senate has voted to advance a stalled immigration spending bill after Republicans removed $1 billion in funding for President Donald Trump's new White House ballroom.

The Senate voted along party lines on Wednesday to take up Republicans’ $70 billion immigration crackdown bill, but several GOP senators suggested they would not allow it to pass without new language barring President Trump from creating a fund to compensate his political allies.

The 53-to-46 vote began debate on legislation that was supposed to unite Republicans around Trump’s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda, but has instead become a flashpoint for clashes between the president and GOP members of Congress just months before the midterm elections.

Before bringing it up, Republicans followed through on a decision they made late last month to jettison $1 billion in security funds for Trump’s ballroom and other White House renovations, which had drawn a mini-revolt within his party.

The $1 billion was intended for US Secret Service security upgrades as part of the construction, a request following April's shooting at a gala Trump attended at a hotel.

Trump has argued the new addition is necessary to host official state functions and update security facilities. He repeatedly said it would be funded by private donations.

They were also discussing adding a provision that would block Trump from resurrecting the idea of creating a $1.8 billion fund to pay people who claim to have been victimized by the government, which the administration dropped this week after it came under withering attack from members of both parties.

The vote set the stage for a lengthy vote-a-thon on a range of issues that is expected to culminate on Thursday in Senate passage of the immigration enforcement bill, which Republicans are pushing through Congress using special procedures that shield it from a filibuster. They will need near unanimity to overcome united Democratic opposition.

Even after sworn testimony on Tuesday by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, that the administration was not moving forward with the fund, a significant bloc of Republican senators still wanted to codify that statement in the bill. Some of them said their votes for the measure, which funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, were contingent on doing so.

It marked an unusual moment of proactive challenge to the president from Republican senators who have spent much of his second term simply falling in line behind him. Given that the legislation ultimately must be signed by Trump, it also set up a test of his willingness to stomach such pushback from Congress, or whether he would instead veto a measure to fund a centerpiece of his own agenda.

“We don’t want to oppose the president just for the sake of opposing the president,” said Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina. But with one-third of Republican senators up for re-election in November, Tillis said there was simply no way to vote for the fund.

But the president continued to defend the fund. Not long after the Senate began debating the bill, Trump himself cast doubt on whether he had truly abandoned the fund, telling reporters at the White House that “I love it” and that “it’s so important.” He said he was unsure of its fate.

Democrats have promised to force votes on the fund, which was announced as part of a settlement Trump reached with the Internal Revenue Service last month, and a separate provision of that deal that shields the president, his family and businesses from audits.

Throughout the evening on Wednesday, Democrats took to the Senate floor in succession to castigate the president’s fund, even as Republicans tried to put it in the rearview mirror and focus on the immigration measure.

“He was trying to advance a self-serving, corrupt slush fund to pay off his supporters,” said Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California. “That’s his priority.”

Republicans, for their part, ceded their 10 hours of debate time to speed up the lengthy process and move as quickly as possible to a final vote for the bill, which was expected on Thursday.

“Our goal here is to get homeland security funded fully,” said Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota. “That’s going to be our priority. And whatever it takes to get that done, we are going to consider.”

The idea of Trump’s fund had generated wide resistance from Republicans, including some in the House and Senate who face tough re-election challenges in November. Some of the most vocal pushback came from Republican senators like Tillis who have little left to lose politically by crossing a vengeful president.

Tillis, who is not seeking re-election next year, said his vote to move ahead with the reconciliation bill was contingent on a commitment from Republican leaders that he would get a vote on an amendment that would permanently shut down what the administration had called its “weaponization” fund.