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Senate Republicans can’t include $1 billion for President Donald Trump’s ballroom in their bill funding immigration enforcement, the Senate parliamentarian ruled Saturday.
Republicans are moving the immigration money through a special budget process that sidesteps the filibuster but doesn’t allow “extraneous” provisions, and the parliamentarian deemed the ballroom money extraneous.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, announced the parliamentarian’s decision in a press release. (The parliamentarian doesn’t make public statements.)
“A project as complex and large in scale as Trump’s proposed ballroom necessarily involves the coordination of many government agencies which span the jurisdiction of many Senate committees,” the release said. The parliamentarian said the the ballroom provision inappropriately funds activities outside the jurisdiction of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which wrote the proposal, Merkley’s office said.
The parliamentarian’s ruling is a setback for Trump and Republicans, but they can rewrite the provision and try again before they vote on the bill next week.
“While we expect Republicans to change this bill to appease Trump, Democrats are prepared to challenge any change to this bill,” Merkley said in a press release. “We cannot let Republicans waste our national treasure on a mission of chaos and corruption while turning a blind eye to the needs of the American people.”
