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.