When the Senate comes back tonight, much of the focus is going to be on the future of the $1 billion request to secure President Donald Trump’s controversial East Wing ballroom project.
The demand is already on thin ice. And Democrats are working to make it politically toxic for vulnerable Republicans ahead of November’s elections.
This is new. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has a Dear Colleague letter this morning to Senate Democrats.
“Americans do not need a ballroom. They need relief,” Schumer wrote.
The Schumer letter serves as a preview of how Democrats plan to discuss the $72 billion reconciliation bill focused on ICE and border patrol.
Schumer said Democrats will bring Byrd Rule challenges and force several amendment votes during the vote-a-rama later this month, in a bid to put vulnerable Republicans on the record about the ballroom.
“That is what today’s Republicans have become: Ballroom Republicans — asking working families to pay the price while Donald Trump pockets the perks,” Schumer added.
Ballroom blitz. The ballroom security money is the biggest problem for the reconciliation bill, and it caught lots of GOP lawmakers off guard. Moderate Republicans in both chambers are privately raising objections, bristling at the political downside of blessing Trump’s controversial ballroom project. Expect those complaints to grow louder when the House returns Tuesday night.
The White House and Department of Homeland Security are making a big push for the Secret Service cash infusion. Trump administration officials will have work to do this week to try to keep it from falling out of the package, as they note it’s not just for the ballroom.
Senate GOP leaders are preparing the reconciliation bill for a floor vote the week of May 18. Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans are teeing up a potential markup for May 19. The Homeland Security panel is also eyeing a vote around then. The Budget Committee will then hold its own markup to stitch the bill together.
Farm bill problems. The House passed its farm bill in a last-minute rush before leaving for last week’s recess. Farm-state Republicans caved at the last minute, pushing off a vote on allowing the year-round sale of E15. Now the House has to vote on Wednesday to decouple the bill from the overall farm bill. This will be a tough vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune will find similar problems. If the House passes the E15 bill, Thune said he would seek to marry it with the farm bill in the Senate. But it’s not clear he’ll be able to do so due to opposition from oil-heavy states. Remember that Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso is from an oil-producing state, as are many Senate Republicans. This may not be a divide Thune can bridge.
The House also removed a provision that acted as a liability shield for pesticide companies. This is going to cause problems in the Senate.
In an interview with KOTA-TV in South Dakota last week, Thune described it as “a conflict between the MAHA crowd and production agriculture.”
Thune said stripping the pesticide language was the wrong move, adding that it was “a carefully calibrated and negotiated provision” when it came out of the House Agriculture Committee. Farmers are already dealing with narrow margins and rising fertilizer and fuel prices, Thune added, so it’s unclear whether this could clear the Senate.
“If you’re funding lawsuits on some of these issues, it pushes upward pressure on prices and it makes farming in this country, and here in South Dakota more specifically, that much more expensive,” Thune said.
