President Donald Trump may not be getting taxpayer money for his ballroom after all.
Senate Republicans on Wednesday indicated they expect the funds intended to secure the planned East Wing project to be stripped out of the single-party package because they lack the votes to include the money in the bill.
Adding to the troubles, Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, ruled that language fails to pass muster with the strict budget rules for what can be included in the $72 billion proposal for border security priorities.
“We’re going back to square one,” Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told NOTUS. “What I’m told is it’s not based on an interpretation by the parliamentarian. The votes are not there. If we go forward, we will lose.”
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis also said Republicans don’t have the votes to pass the funding, warning that if they go forward with it, it would needlessly subject Republicans to brutal Democratic attacks ahead of the November midterms.
“They should have never conflated the other legitimate Secret Service needs because it’s just giving everybody the ‘billion dollar ballroom’ and it’s just a bad idea,” Tillis told NOTUS.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged the struggle to lock down the votes, telling reporters that despite Trump’s calls to oust the parliamentarian, that is the lesser of the worries at present.
Hellbound and Down 