Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says he’s “hopeful” that there are enough Republican votes to advance a $72 billion budget reconciliation bill on the Senate floor Wednesday, which would set up a marathon series of votes on amendments likely to last until Thursday morning. “We’re hopeful,” Thune said of advancing the package to fund…
The Senate on Wednesday voted to start considering a package to fund immigration enforcement agencies after weeks of delay while Republicans pushed back on the White House’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund.” The 53-46 vote kicks off hours of debate, followed by a series of unlimited back-to-back amendment votes before final passage later this week. The…
Senate Republicans decided not to allocate federal funds to Donald Trump’s ballroom project in the latest draft of their budget reconciliation bill on Wednesday, in a blow to the president’s architectural takeover of the nation’s capital.Before the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” overshadowed it, Trump’s ballroom project was the clearest example of how his solipsism was hurting American taxpayers. The White House said the ballroom was needed for security purposes, and initially claimed it would be funded with approximately $200 million from Trump and “other patriot donors.”That number later doubled to $400 million, before ballooning to a $1 billion funding request for White House security—part of which would go toward the ballroom.Despite badgering by Trump that the ballroom was especially needed after a gunman attempted to sprint through a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in April, using taxpayer money on a ballroom was deemed unnecessary by nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough in May. Trump then tried to get MacDonough fired, while his administration submitted court documents claiming the ballroom was somehow “under budget.”Four Republican senators—Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina—publicly voiced opposition to public money going to the vanity project in May. A larger group inside the GOP were privately against the ballroom, according to five anonymous insiders who spoke with Politico. And most GOP senators were likely worried Democrats would put them on the record about whether they supported public funds going to the ballroom during the filibuster process.Trump’s “anti-weaponization fund” has also recently been discarded after he faced public pressure and legal challenges to it.The Senate began voting to begin discussing their reconciliation bill Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The bill’s primary impact would be to fully fund the Department of Homeland security through the end of Trump’s second term.
US states are bracing for the fallout from President Donald Trump’s sweeping Medicaid cuts by weighing tax increases, spending cuts and rollbacks of Medicaid expansion to offset a $900 billion reduction in federal funding over the next decade.
Spencer Pratt has confidently claimed he’s already looking ahead to a November runoff as election results Tuesday night showed him comfortably in second place behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.
Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York argued the new face for the director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, lacks qualifications for the position. “It seems like a pretty poor choice here,” York said on Fox News’s Special Report Tuesday. President Donald Trump tapped Pulte for the position after the previous director, Tulsi Gabbard, resigned […]
Senate Republicans have stripped language providing up to $1 billion for security upgrades to the proposed White House ballroom from a revised budget reconciliation bill unveiled on Wednesday. Senate Republicans agreed among themselves before the Memorial Day recess to pull the money for President Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom out of the reconciliation package but they made…
Senate Republicans stripped federal funds for Donald Trump’s White House ballroom from a spending package after the money triggered a blacklash from lawmakers in both parties.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed reporting of a highly publicized clash between himself and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte last year, although he said that such confrontations happen when working on a team. During a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Finance Committee to testify on President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, Bessent faced questions […]