Republicans won't have an easy time trying to sneak a high price tag for Trump's White House ballroom into a bill to fund federal immigration enforcement, a political analyst warned.
"The White House boasted last summer that the price tag for the ballroom would be $200 million, and every penny would come from private donations," wrote Steve Benen for MSNOW in a Tuesday piece. "Late last year, it was up to $400 million — though, again, the official line was that American taxpayers wouldn't be on the hook."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed on Monday that a $72 billion reconciliation package includes $1 billion in security features for Trump's ballroom, NBC News reported. "Put another way, congressional Republicans expect the public to pay $1 billion for a $400 million ballroom," according to Benen.
Benen warns that the ballroom funding will "likely be among the most controversial parts" of a bill that's supposed to focus on funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of Border Patrol.
"The proposal isn't just about the ballroom," Benen wrote. "On the contrary, Republicans are pushing a $72 billion reconciliation package that includes, among other things, more than $38 billion for ICE, roughly $26 billion for CBP and an additional $5 billion for DHS."
Since the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, Republicans have been more open about changing their minds and having taxpayers foot the bill, Benen noted.
Republicans are pushing a reconciliation package in the wake of losing the standoff to fund DHS. Ultimately, Democrats were able to avoid a deal that funded ICE and CBP, but "Republicans took the deal knowing that they planned to address ICE and CBP in a separate package," according to Benen.
