Congress
Nervous Republicans weigh their options amid White House’s ballroom lobbying blitz
President Donald Trump’s pet project is hanging by a thread.
The political risk of spending taxpayer dollars on parts of a new White House ballroom has unsettled congressional Republicans, who are questioning whether they can approve $1 billion in Secret Service security funding — even as officials from the agency, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House blanket Capitol Hill to make the case for its necessity amid growing threats.
Senate Republicans, including party leaders, are discussing making potential changes to the billion-dollar item as they deal with member concerns and wait for the chamber’s parliamentarian to rule on whether it can even be included in the GOP’s party-line immigration enforcement funding bill. No final decisions have been made, but options include reducing the amount of funding.
The discussions are centered on “how to get 50 votes in the Senate,” Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview about the security funding talks. “And then obviously what happens with the parliamentarian will have a lot to do with how that shakes out, too.”
Senate aides will meet with Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough Friday to litigate the portion of the legislation that includes the Secret Service funding, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private scheduling. Senators generally defer to MacDonough’s interpretations of the “Byrd rule,” the restrictions governing what is permissible in a filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation bill.
Republicans across the Capitol are also keeping their powder dry until after the meeting, known in Hill parlance as a “Byrd bath.” MacDonough ruled Thursday other parts of the bill she had already reviewed did not pass muster, though GOP staff will try to rewrite them in the coming days to comply.
“We want to see what the Senate does, because they’ve … got the Byrd bath that they have to go through that is not a House process,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said. “Right now, I don’t think people are passing judgment because they don’t know what the final product is going to look like coming from the Senate.”
Scalise, asked about the alarm from some of his GOP members about the political optics of public funding for the ballroom, replied, “There’s a lot of meetings going on.”
“There’s a lot of those conversations, but we’re in the early stages, because we don’t know what the final product is going to look like,” he added.
Republican leaders are expressing confidence that MacDonough will approve the Secret Service provision, which directs the funding to “security adjustments and upgrades.” But some, including Senate Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have predicted the language could come out and are waiting to see how she rules before they decide if they will support the bill.
Reconciliation rules dictate that all parts of the bill must have a direct impact on the federal budget, and they also must fall within the jurisdiction of committees that are specified in the budget framework Republicans approved last month. Democrats are expected to argue that the security provision should be removed because it steps into an active court battle and was drafted by the Judiciary Committee, which does not have jurisdiction over the White House construction project, according to a person granted anonymity to describe private strategy.
MacDonough could decide that the whole provision has to go, or she might target part of it, such as language referring specifically to the East Wing project.
Even if that language gets past MacDonough, GOP leaders in both chambers are facing unease — and in some cases, outright opposition — within their ranks that could threaten the security funding.
Several GOP senators want a more detailed breakdown of how the Secret Service will use the funding related to the East Wing project. The Judiciary Committee language specifies only that it can be used for “above-ground and below-ground security features” but not on “non-security elements.”
A document handed to GOP senators Tuesday specified no more than $220 million would go to the White House project and listed a few examples of how the funding could be used in relation to the project, such as for bulletproof glass. That failed to quell concerns.
“The White House is trying, I think, to get more details to it. But I think what’s become clear is you have security pieces for the East Wing, but you also have a lot of just additional add-ons for Secret Service,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
Another GOP senator, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, added: “You can’t just drop a round number on us and say, ‘We need a billion dollars.’”
Thune said part of the $1 billion is meant to address a “fairly long and pent-up demand” for additional resources for Secret Service separate from the East Wing-specific money. But those requests have sparked questions from Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) about why they aren’t going through the normal government funding process.
Under reconciliation rules, Republicans will be subject to unlimited amendment debate before they can pass the bill. Democrats are expected to offer a proposal to strike the $1 billion, which could succeed if four Republicans vote with all Democrats.
Asked if leaders had the votes to pass the bill with the ballroom-related language, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) noted two committees are scheduled to act on the bill next week before it goes to the floor.
“You’re asking what’s going to happen in a vote-a-rama Thursday night,” Barrasso said, referring to the amendment extravaganza, noting it was still “days away.”
The ballroom issue could come to a head earlier, when the Senate Budget Committee meets next week to prepare the bill for the floor. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who sits on the panel, wants to lower the overall size of the immigration enforcement bill to offset the inclusion of the $1 billion security request.
If the funding survives the Senate, its approval in the House is hardly a sure thing. The prospect of taking a vote next week to green-light hundreds of millions of dollars for White House and ballroom security has alarmed several politically vulnerable Republicans.
“I haven’t committed one way or another until we get more of a further breakdown as to how it’s going to be allocated,” Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) said in an interview Thursday.
In closed-door meetings earlier this week, House Republicans in at-risk seats pressed Secret Service Director Sean Curran and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin for more details on the $220 million White House portion of the security ask. Both men said that information would be forthcoming.
Bresnahan said he was still waiting to see an itemized list while also hinting that he is hoping the matter takes care of itself.
“This could easily be Byrded out,” he added, referring to MacDonough’s ruling.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who warned earlier this week that the ballroom funding was “not happening” on the immigration bill, signaled Thursday he was heeding voters in his district by not backing down.
“They want DHS funded, they want ICE reforms, and they don’t want taxpayer funds going to a ballroom,” Fitzpatrick said.
But Trump and his deputies have successfully browbeat GOP lawmakers into line many times in the past, and the White House’s pressure campaign on the ballroom money is making some headway, according to six people involved in the conversations.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) initially voiced apprehension about the idea Tuesday, saying, “I don’t think it’s wise.” Hours later, after meeting with Mullin, Bacon softened his views, arguing it wasn’t “as much money” for the ballroom project as he thought.
Other House Republicans who are facing tough races are under immense pressure from the White House to approve the money and privately say they are likely to do so. One thing weighing on GOP lawmakers’ minds is the succession of assassination attempts targeting Trump and the overall rise in political violence.
“We know there’s an emerging, just radically different threat environment, even [versus] just five years ago,” said one. “And so we have to make sure that we have the appropriate resources across a full spectrum of infrastructure capabilities.”
Ali Bianco, Mia McCarthy, Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
A top pollster for President Donald Trump is pushing back on recent public polling showing Republican Mike Rogers trailing progressive Abdul El-Sayed in the marquee Michigan Senate race.
Tony Fabrizio, who is conducting polling for Rogers, says the polls released this month are over-sampling Democratic-leaning voters, specifically college-educated and Black voters, according to an internal memo obtained by Blue Light News. A Susquehanna poll released this month showed El-Sayed leading by seven points and a TIPP poll showed him leading by four points.
El-Sayed’s lead in those polls is a “fake narrative,” Fabrizio wrote. His polling for AARP — conducted alongside Democratic firm Impact Research — showed the race essentially tied.
The warning follows huge polling misses in the Democratic primaries in the Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida, which he wrote were “some of the most egregious examples of public polling failures in recent memory.” It’s also a sign that Republicans are wary of the string of bad polling numbers for Rogers in the race, which is crucial for determining control of the chamber.
Jim Lee, CEO of Susquehanna Polling and Research, told Blue Light News that the firm did not oversample any demographics. “I think their head is in the sand,” Lee said, noting in part what he said was a gap in enthusiasm between Democratic and Republican voters this cycle.
TIPP didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Fabrizio, in the memo, argued on the Susquehanna poll: “50% of the sample in this survey is college-educated – making them massively overrepresented to what they should be. We took a look at 2022 and 2024 Exit Polls and VoteCast data and, as shown below, there is no indication that the Michigan electorate will be anywhere near 50% college-educated. In fact, it is unlikely they will be even 40% college-educated.”
He also noted “a huge gap” between college-educated and non-college educated voters.
“This was the driving issue of the public polling misses for President Trump in 2016 and 2024, especially in the Upper Midwest states of Michigan and Wisconsin,” Fabrizio added. “By increasing college-educated voters by 10+ points, and thus decreasing non-college educated voters by the same, we can pretty much guarantee this poll is significantly overestimating El-Sayed’s vote share.”
President Donald Trump and hemp industry lobbyists are hoping to win a final vote on Capitol Hill next week to skirt a ban on intoxicating products — with shutdown politics as leverage.
Nine months ago, Congress cleared a bill to close a loophole created in 2018 that allowed the sale of some hemp-derived products containing types of THC colloquially known as “diet weed.” That ban is supposed to take effect in mid-November, or roughly 11 weeks, to limit overall THC levels in hemp products that can get people high — including gummies, canned drinks, pills and vapes.
But Trump and industry leaders successfully lobbied Senate leaders to add language to a government funding patch earlier this month to delay the ban until mid-December, with the administration promising instead to finalize regulations cracking down on how the products are made and sold.
Now House Republican leaders are aiming to clear that bill for Trump’s signature early next week, according to three people granted anonymity to disclose private discussions. And many GOP lawmakers are not pleased at the prospect of being rolled.
Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) told reporters last week that he expected House lawmakers would “iron out” some “sticking points” with the Senate-passed funding bill, “particularly the hemp issue,” rather than pass the legislation without changes — which appears to be GOP leadership’s current plan.
Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) was more blunt: “it is morally reprehensible to threaten a shutdown over a loophole Congress agreed to close to less than a year ago,” he said in a statement Thursday.
Yet despite fierce pushback from lawmakers warning that the intoxicating products are harming Americans, hemp industry leaders are preparing for a victory, betting members of Congress ultimately care more about swiftly passing legislation to avert a Sept. 30 government shutdown before the midterms.
“Any effort to try to shut down the government — over a one-month delay on a hemp issue — I don’t think is going to fly well with most members of Congress,” Jonathan Miller, a top lawyer for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable advocacy group, said in an interview this week.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about its plans for imposing new rules on hemp products in the coming months. But the Trump administration is expected to need more time than mid-December to finalize regulations, so hemp industry representatives are discussing a “regulatory bridge” that would impose temporary rules while continuing to avoid a full ban, according to Miller.
That could include restricting purchase to adults age 21 and older, blocking imports from China, mandating certain manufacturing practices, cracking down on copycat products that look like popular candy or potato chips and requiring transparency in product labeling.
While lawmakers have been back home over their summer break, hemp industry leaders have fanned out across the country to make their case for this plan. “The hemp industry does not have an August recess,” Christopher Lackner, head of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, said in an interview this month of the group’s work to facilitate passage of the Senate-passed funding bill.
Trump administration officials have also been telling reluctant lawmakers they will use the one-month delay to work on regulations. “The White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in an interview this month.
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), who fought in the Senate to retain the ban as originally intended, said White House officials have said “they don’t want another extension, and I agree with that.”
In a statement, Ricketts said that “manufactured high-THC products like gummies and drinks are putting our kids in the hospital” and need to be taken “off our shelves.”
Some supporters of the ban say the White House and industry are just employing delay tactics to get to December, when lawmakers will face another pressure campaign to delay the ban while they are motivated to avert a shutdown before leaving town for the holidays.
“What they’re really after is to try to jam this on some must-pass, end-of-the-year funding,” Budd told reporters earlier this month. “That’s really what this is about.”
Budd fought to block the delay in the Senate as part of the government funding measure, but his amendment to that end was shot down 61-32 before the chamberpassed the legislation, sending it on for House action.
Trump personally called Budd after the senator filed the amendment and talked about creating federal regulations for hemp products, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion.
Days later, Budd demanded a vote on the amendment anyway and continues to slam the hemp industry.
“It is clear that businesses that sell unregulated, intoxicating products will stop at nothing to protect their bottom line, even at the expense of children’s health and safety,” he said in a statement this week.
Besides lawmakers fighting to ban intoxicating hemp products, others are pushing alongside the White House and industry for federal regulations.
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-W.Va.) has crafted legislation that would direct the Food and Drug Administration to create federal rules for intoxicating hemp products and wants to see mandates for third-party testing, as well as new THC limits per serving.
Griffith told reporters Thursday the “deadline push” in the Senate-passed government funding measure “is not long enough” to finalize necessary regulations.
Since state limits for THC vary widely throughout the country and the federal government has taken years to step in since the hemp loophole was created in 2018, Griffith argued it makes more sense to regulate the intoxicating products than to enact a federal ban.
“That horse is out of the barn,” he said. “What we need to do is corral it.”
Kelsey Brugger, Amanda Friedman and Rachel Shin contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump’s $400-million super PAC is taking its first steps into the general election: hosting a public event in battleground Michigan, headlined by Vice President JD Vance.
Battleground Republicans have been clamoring for Trump’s MAGA Inc. to spend in competitive races. The Michigan event is an early indicator of how the massive group might seek to use its funds to help the party keep control of Washington.
Vance will be joined in Sterling, Michigan, on Monday by GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, 10th District nominee Mike Bouchard Jr. and gubernatorial nominee John James, along with several other Michigan Republicans, according to an event advisory from MAGA Inc.
The GOP sees Michigan’s open seat as its best Senate pickup target this fall as Rogers faces former public health leader and progressive Abdul El-Sayed, who emerged from a grueling primary earlier this month.
“MAGA Inc. will be hosting events throughout the nation to ensure that Republicans retain control of Congress in order to finish cleaning up the mess the Biden-Harris-Pelosi-Schumer Democrats left,” said Alex Pfeiffer, spokesperson for MAGA Inc. “We’re not going back to their record inflation, open borders, and surging crime.”
MAGA Inc. is sitting on more funds than any other super PAC, and Republican donors and battleground candidates have been hoping it will unleash that money to help the party keep control of the House and Senate.
So far, the group has only spent only a few million dollars out of its massive fundraising haul, and its funds have largely gone to competitive Republican primaries. Most recently, it spent $827,000 on phone calls and text messages to boost Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) in the state’s special primary.
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