{"id":22765,"date":"2026-05-15T12:02:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-nervous-gop-weighs-options-on-ballroom\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T12:02:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:02:05","slug":"capitol-agenda-nervous-gop-weighs-options-on-ballroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-nervous-gop-weighs-options-on-ballroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Nervous GOP weighs options on ballroom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republicans uneasy about the political risk of sending taxpayer dollars<\/u><\/a> toward the new White House ballroom are hoping the Senate’s rule keeper will make the decision for them as soon as Friday.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers in both parties are watching closely for Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to decide whether Republicans\u2019 latest party-line bill can include a $1 billion Secret Service provision that could fund parts of President Donald Trump\u2019s ballroom project.<\/p>\n

Bipartisan staff will meet with MacDonough Friday on that provision and the rest of the Judiciary Committee’s section of the bill, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private scheduling. She demonstrated just how quickly she can upend the GOP’s plans Thursday when she ruled against another portion of the bill funding immigration enforcement (more on that below).<\/p>\n

Even ahead of the ruling, Senate Republicans are discussing making changes to the billion-dollar item \u2014 including reducing its amount \u2014 due to concerns from their own members about the money.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Blue Light News the discussions are centered on \u201chow to get 50 votes in the Senate\u201d on the security funding.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the Capitol, House Republicans are keeping mostly quiet until they know whether the provision will survive MacDonough\u2019s interpretations of the \u201cByrd rule,\u201d the restrictions governing what is permissible in a filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation bill<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see what the Senate does,\u201d House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said. \u201cRight 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scalise, asked about the alarm from some of his GOP members about the political optics of public funding for the ballroom, replied, \u201cThere’s a lot of meetings going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several House and Senate Republicans have said they want a more detailed accounting of how the Secret Service will use funding related to the East Wing project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t committed one way or another until we get more of a further breakdown as to how it\u2019s going to be allocated,\u201d Rep. Rob Bresnahan told Blue Light News Thursday.<\/p>\n

The White House is working to get Republicans on board, with officials from the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security making the case for the funding as its fate wobbles. The pressure campaign is making some headway, according to six people involved in the conversations.<\/p>\n

Rep. Don Bacon initially voiced apprehension about the funding Tuesday, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s wise.\u201d Hours later, after meeting with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Bacon softened his views, arguing it wasn\u2019t \u201cas much money\u201d for the ballroom project as he thought.<\/p>\n

Still, he argued the lack of details in the initial White House request represented a \u201cbotched delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 GOP TO TRY AGAIN ON HOMELAND PROVISIONS:<\/b> Republicans will have to rewrite<\/a> other portions of the bill funding immigration enforcement following MacDonough’s ruling Thursday.<\/p>\n

The parliamentarian found four parts of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel’s portion of the package will need to be reworked following a Democratic challenge if Republicans want to pass them at a simple-majority margin.<\/p>\n

They will need to work quickly if they are going to meet the June 1 deadline Trump has set for clearing the legislation.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 WHITE HOUSE, SENATE PUSH HOUSE ON HOUSING BILL \u2014 <\/b>Thune and the White House Thursday again pressured<\/a> House lawmakers to pass the Senate\u2019s version of a housing bill and abandon their own tweaks. The clearest path to getting housing legislation to Trump\u2019s desk is for the House to pass the Senate\u2019s bill, Thune said, adding his chamber\u2019s version \u201cwas carefully constructed to get at what the president wanted to address.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 CRYPTO BILL MOVES TO SENATE FLOOR<\/b> \u2014 Senators on the Banking panel Thursday advanced a landmark cryptocurrency bill<\/a> that would overhaul how digital assets are regulated, sending the measure to the floor with bipartisan backing.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Jennifer Scholtes, Katherine Hapgood and Jasper Goodman contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans uneasy about the political risk of sending taxpayer dollars toward the new White House ballroom are hoping the Senate’s rule keeper will make the decision for them as soon as Friday. Lawmakers in both parties are watching closely for Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to decide whether Republicans\u2019 latest party-line bill can include a $1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}