Senate Republicans officially were back to the drawing board after the Senate parliamentarian concluded that security spending related to the proposed White House ballroom did not past muster under budget reconciliation rules.
Still, they aim to get a bill through to passage this week, with a vote-a-rama expected before the Senate’s Memorial Day recess. The bill would provide nearly $72 billion mostly for immigration enforcement funding. President Donald Trump has said he wants the reconciliation measure on his desk by June 1.
The Senate parliamentarian advised Saturday that a $1 billion provision for Secret Service funding connected to a proposed White House ballroom would violate the chamber’s Byrd rule governing budget reconciliation bills. The guidance from the official arbiter of the reconciliation process means the provision as currently drafted would almost surely need to be struck from the GOP bill.
Democrats from the Senate Budget Committee have had modest success so far in undermining the proposals from Republicans, identifying provisions that are not allowed under the Byrd rule. As drafted, the funding was found to fall under the jurisdiction other than the Judiciary Committee, Democrats said.
