The Senate parliamentarian ruled late Saturday that $1 billion in funding for President Trump’s ballroom included in the Republican reconciliation bill violates the requirements to be passed by a simple majority vote.
Republicans are trying to use the $72 billion reconciliation bill that aims to fund immigration enforcement agencies through 2029 as a vehicle to pay for security-related elements of the White House ballroom currently under construction, amid legal challenges. But Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that the ballroom funding falls outside the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee, which wrote that portion of the reconciliation bill.
If Republicans were to keep the provision in the bill as currently formulated, it would be subject to a 60-vote threshold for passage rather than the 50-vote threshold allowed under reconciliation.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee, welcomed the parliamentarian’s ruling. “The American people shouldn’t spend a single dime on Trump’s gold-plated ballroom boondoggle,” he said in a statement. “While we expect Republicans to change this bill to appease Trump, Democrats are prepared to challenge any change to this bill.”
Republicans say they will rework the request and send it back to the parliamentarian for review. “Redraft. Refine. Resubmit,” Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, said on X. “None of this is abnormal during a Byrd process,” he added, referring to the Byrd Rule that governs reconciliation bills, named after former Sen. Robert Byrd.
What comes next: The parliamentarian is expected to rule on the revised language this week as Republicans push to pass the reconciliation bill by Friday. If the ballroom funding remains in the bill, Democrats say they will bring up amendments during the “vote-a-rama” session that would divert the money to other uses, forcing Republicans to take a public stance on the issue. Not every Republican senator is happy with the funding, which comes at a time when Americans are facing gas prices near $5 a gallon.