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Backlash to Trump Fund Delays GOP Bill 05/22 06:22
Senate Republicans abruptly left Washington on Thursday without voting on a
roughly $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies, frustrated
with the White House and at an impasse over whether to try to block a new
$1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have
been politically prosecuted.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans abruptly left Washington on Thursday
without voting on a roughly $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement
agencies, frustrated with the White House and at an impasse over whether to try
to block a new $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies who
believe they have been politically prosecuted.
Republicans had already abandoned part of the bill that provided $1 billion
in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump's
ballroom amid backlash from members of their own party. But the settlement
announced by the Justice Department this week prompted even more questions,
spurring a push to limit the taxpayer dollars that some feared could go to
Trump supporters who harmed law enforcement officers in the Jan. 6, 2021,
attack on the Capitol.
A tense meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday
morning to discuss the settlement only heightened the frustration among
senators. Soon after it ended, Republican leaders announced that they would not
vote on the immigration enforcement measure until they returned from a Memorial
Day recess the week of June 1, which was Trump's self-imposed deadline for them
to pass it.
Blanche "had an appreciation for the depth of feeling" among GOP senators,
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said afterward as a growing number of them
spoke out against the idea.
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former GOP leader, called the settlement
"utterly stupid, morally wrong."
"The nation's top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay
people who assault cops?" McConnell said in a statement afterward.
The last-minute scramble on the bill came as Democrats have criticized
Republicans for trying to fund Trump's ballroom when voters are concerned about
affordability issues -- and as some GOP lawmakers have grown increasingly
frustrated with Trump.
Several GOP senators have spoken out against the Justice Department
settlement announced this week, and many were upset by the president's Tuesday
endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in next week's primary runoff
against Sen. John Cornyn.
Growing tensions with the White House derail bill
Both sides have acknowledged the tensions. Thune said Thursday that the
White House should have consulted Congress before it announced the settlement,
which he said made "everything way harder than it should be." Trump's
endorsement of Cornyn's opponent also complicated matters, he said.
"I think it's hard to divorce anything that happens here from what's
happening in the political atmosphere around us," Thune told reporters. "There
is a political component to everything we do around here."
Trump unloaded on senators in a social media post Wednesday, urging
Republicans to fire the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who said
over the weekend that parts of the $1 billion White House security proposal did
not qualify for the ICE and Border Patrol bill. Trump also renewed his
long-standing calls for the Senate to pass the SAVE Act, a Republican bill that
would require voters to prove U.S. citizenship, and to end the Senate
filibuster.
Republicans need to "get smart and tough," Trump said, or "you'll all be
looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible!"
While they have been loyal to Trump on most issues, Senate Republicans have
resisted his repeated calls over the years to kill the filibuster, which
creates a 60-vote threshold for most bills in the Senate.
Asked Thursday at the White House if he was losing control of the Senate,
Trump replied: "I really don't know. I can tell you -- I only do what's right."
Hanging over the growing GOP rift is Trump's surprise endorsement of Paxton.
That intervention has Republican senators privately fuming that it could cost
them their majority in November as they view the incumbent, Cornyn, as the
stronger candidate.
Possible parameters on Trump's settlement fund
The "anti-weaponization" fund, part of a settlement that resolves Trump's
lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, unexpectedly became
one of the main complications in the bill after Democrats announced that they
would force votes to block it or place restrictions on it.
Democrats have an opening because Republicans are trying to pass the
immigration enforcement bill through a budget process that allows a long series
of amendment votes. The Democratic amendments would block the fund outright or
ban any payments to Trump supporters who harmed law enforcement officers on
Jan. 6, 2021.
"The only way for Republicans to get out of this box is to stop backing the
slush fund, stop pushing the ballroom, and as soon as we get back, join
Democrats in fighting to lower Americans' costs on health care, on housing, on
power, on so much else," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York
said after senators left town.
As it became clear that the Democratic amendments could pass, Republicans
began discussing their own last-minute additions to head that off -- an idea
that appeared to have support in the GOP conference but could threaten eventual
support of the bill in the House or make a presidential veto more likely.
"I think there's reasonable limitations that can be put on it," said Sen.
Rick Scott, R-Fla., one of Trump's top allies in the Senate.
Secret Service request falters
Under the Secret Service's request, about $220 million would fund security
improvements related to the ballroom. The rest would go for a new screening
center for visitors, training and other security measures.
After it became clear that Republicans would abandon that proposal, Trump
told reporters at the White House on Thursday that "I don't need money for the
ballroom," which he had originally said would be paid for with private funds.
Still, if Congress doesn't approve the request, he said the White House "won't
be a very secure place."
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the effort to add the security package to the
bill was a "bad idea." The bill should not have included the other security
improvements, he said, "because it's just giving everybody the 'billion-dollar
ballroom.'"
Left in the bill is the money for ICE and Border Patrol, which Democrats
have blocked for months in protest of the administration's immigration
enforcement crackdown.
Democrats demanded changes for the agencies, but negotiations with the White
House yielded little progress. So Republicans are using the complicated budget
maneuver called reconciliation -- the same process that allowed them to pass
Trump's tax and spending cuts bill last year -- to fund the agencies through
the end of Trump's term without any Democratic support.
Still, passage requires sign-off from the parliamentarian and unity from
Republicans.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said the Senate's responsibility should be to
focus on funding ICE and Border Patrol.
"When other extraneous things get in the middle of it, it makes it more
difficult," he said.
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