Senate Republicans have inserted $1 billion for White House East Wing security enhancements in the immigration enforcement funding bill they hope to rush through Congress this month, setting up a political fight over a ballroom that President Trump has said would be financed with private money.
The leaders of the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees on Monday released plans for the roughly $70 billion package, which would significantly bolster spending on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol through the end of Mr. Trump’s term using a party-line legislative process that can skirt a filibuster.
A surprise addition to the measure was the $1 billion proposed by the Judiciary Committee for security work related to the White House renovation initiated by the president. The measure doesn’t mention the president’s proposed new ballroom, which is being challenged in court, but Mr. Trump has insisted that a main reason for the project is to enhance security.
He and congressional Republicans have escalated their efforts to defend the project after the attempted assault late last month at a journalism gala in Washington attended by the president. Mr. Trump has also previously insisted that the project would be funded through private donations.
The bill says the public money would be directed to “security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and below-ground security features.” It also bars any of the funding being spent on “non-security elements.”
But Democrats pounced on the proposal, signaling that they intended to make the ballroom a centerpiece of their opposition to the measure and their election-year message that the president and his party were not meeting voters’ needs.
“Republicans are on a different planet than American families,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said in a post on social media. “Republicans looked at families drowning in bills and decided what they really needed was more raids and a Trump ballroom.”
Top Democrats also noted that consideration of the bill would put all senators on the record on a White House construction project that polls have shown to be unpopular.
“Just flagging that now everyone gets an up or down vote on the ballroom,” Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, said on social media.
Republicans are advancing the legislation outside of normal congressional spending channels because Senate Democrats had blocked money for ICE and the border control in a dispute over the tactics and conduct of federal immigration officers. That fight shut down parts of the Department of Homeland Security for almost 80 days.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking action to help provide certainty for federal law enforcement and safer streets for American families,” Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “We will work to ensure this critical funding gets signed into law without unnecessary delay.”
After the attack at the journalism dinner last month, some congressional Republicans proposed that the ballroom be paid for with $400 million in federal money, with private donations to be used for extras such as china. Democrats quickly made clear that they would not support that effort, leaving the potential funding uncertain.
Republicans had pushed for the bill to be kept free of any proposals not directly tied to the immigration crackdown to make it easier to push through rapidly to meet the president’s June 1 deadline, but evidently chose to make an exception in the case of the White House project.
The Judiciary Committee measure would provide about $39 billion and the homeland security measure another $32.5 billion for hiring, training and equipping new immigration enforcement officers and purchasing and employing new border control technology, including artificial intelligence. The homeland security secretary would receive $5 billion in a flexible fund and the legislation includes $1.4 billion for the Justice Department. None of the spending would be offset with cuts elsewhere.
Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who leads the Homeland Security Committee, has been resistant to surges in new spending but said he is backing the funding push because of Democratic recalcitrance.
“Senate Democrats refuse to vote for a single dollar to secure our borders or enforce our immigration laws, even against the most violent illegal aliens,” Mr. Paul said in a statement. “To make sure those vital functions are funded, my committee will vote later this month to give the funding needed.”
Republicans can ultimately pass the spending if they hold together, but Democrats are expected to try to make it as difficult as they can by subjecting Republicans to politically tough votes six months out from the midterm elections.
“Republicans are in danger of losing control of Congress in November, so they are going outside the usual bipartisan appropriations process to fund these unpopular policies through the end of the Trump administration,” Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
