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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(137,995 posts)
Wed Jun 3, 2026, 02:24 PM Wednesday

Senate moving forward with reconciliation bill, dropping ballroom funds

Source: CBS News

Washington — Senate Republicans are moving forward with a package to fund the Department of Homeland Security's immigration agencies on Wednesday, following a back-and-forth over the Justice Department's "anti-weaponization" fund that threatened to derail the long-sought funding.

A revised version of one part of the package released Wednesday also dropped language that would have provided $1 billion in security funding for the Secret Service, including for President Trump's East Wing renovation, where he plans to build a massive ballroom. That funding faced intense scrutiny from a handful of Republicans, prompting senators to abandon it.

Last month, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees unveiled the initial text of the $72 billion package, which funds immigration agencies through fiscal year 2029. The Senate is scheduled to vote on a motion to proceed to the measure during a vote series beginning at 2:15 p.m.

GOP senators have been seeking assurances from the administration about the fate of the controversial Justice Department fund, which was the subject of a heated meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche two weeks ago. Blanche testified before a House committee on Tuesday that "we are not moving forward with the fund."

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/senate-prepares-move-forward-reconciliation-153805782.html

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CousinIT

(12,806 posts)
1. THE SECOND Democrats take over the executive and at least one house ...
Wed Jun 3, 2026, 02:36 PM
Wednesday

... of Congress, they must pass (via reconciliation if needed or suspension of the filibuster) a rescission of that $72 billion AND the money allocated to DHS/ICE in the big ugly bill, except for the funding levels DHS/ICE had back in December 2024. Then, take the rest of that money and use it to restore Medicaid and SNAP, rehire SSA employees and HHS scientists, and restore the NPS.

maxsolomon

(39,216 posts)
3. If they don't take the Senate, they can't pass a Recission Bill.
Wed Jun 3, 2026, 03:09 PM
Wednesday

Odds are not good.

We'll be lucky to take the House this year with the Gerrymandering the SCOTUS enabled.

maxsolomon

(39,216 posts)
4. ICE was.
Wed Jun 3, 2026, 03:12 PM
Wednesday

Not the DHS. That's what Dems got out of the Shutdown - DHS funding pulled from the Continuation and pushed into Reconciliation. They forced the Repukes to waste 1 of 2 Reconciliation bills on DHS.

slightlv

(8,092 posts)
5. We have way too many "police" and police-type agencies
Wed Jun 3, 2026, 03:17 PM
Wednesday

not to kid ourselves we're a "free" country any longer. We're a police state, right up there with Russia, we are, IMO.

maxsolomon

(39,216 posts)
6. Top of my list of items for Dems to eliminate is DHS.
Wed Jun 3, 2026, 03:21 PM
Wednesday

It was a knee jerk reaction to 9-11 and was unnecessary.

Of course, RW Media would pillory the Dem President who did so as "soft on crime".

slightlv

(8,092 posts)
7. There's one way we differ...
Wed Jun 3, 2026, 06:03 PM
Wednesday

I don't think DHS was knee-jerk reaction to 911 (except to the public). I believe the R's have been wanting to create this for a long time. 911 just gave them the excuse they needed to get it passed through without any pushback. In that regard and others, I always will feel 911 was a LIHOP. If that makes me a CT, so be in. But deep in my gut, it's what I've felt ever since it happened. They've gotten so much traction from it, and so many things that would have been near impossible, otherwise... like all the surveillance and all the contracts for Palantir and other spy-adjacent companies. The "Soft on Crime" meme has done us far more harm... not only in concrete ways such as killing things like DHS before they got started, but also on crime statistics, themselves. Stats show how crime and democracy are so much better under Democratic admins, but the meme is so strong, the R's keep being handed the "touch on crime" and better for the economy headlines. It's a real shame Americans are not smarter people.

Karasu

(2,173 posts)
8. Is the voter suppression shit still in there? Because the parliamentarian SHOULD have killed that too, if it was.
Thu Jun 4, 2026, 02:45 AM
Yesterday

LetMyPeopleVote

(182,946 posts)
9. MaddowBlog-Senate Republicans ignore Trump's pleas, strip ballroom funding from key bill
Thu Jun 4, 2026, 08:27 PM
11 hrs ago

The president said the White House “won’t be a very secure place” unless Congress approved public funds related to the ballroom. GOP senators didn’t care.

Trump said the White House “won’t be a very secure place” unless Congress approved public funds for his ballroom.

The plea didn’t work.

The problem wasn’t procedural; it was the simple fact that too many Senate Republicans weren’t willing to vote for his unpopular idea in an election year.

Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-06-03T19:11:04.218Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/senate-republicans-ignore-trumps-pleas-strip-ballroom-funding-from-key-bill

A couple of weeks ago, as part of a weird press conference, Donald Trump again endorsed an effort to secure public funding for “security” measures related to his ballroom vanity project. Asked one day later what would happen if Congress didn’t approve the $1 billion in proposed funds, the president told reporters, “Then the White House won’t be a very secure place.”....

It didn’t work. Bloomberg reported:

Senate Republicans stripped federal funds for Donald Trump’s White House ballroom from a spending package after the money triggered a backlash from lawmakers in both parties.

The removal of the funds Wednesday is a fresh setback for Trump who a day earlier Senate Republicans forced to scrap a $1.8 billion fund to pay allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the government.


The entire trajectory of this fight has been bizarre for a while. For months, Republican officials in the White House and on Capitol Hill assured the public that the ballroom project would be privately financed. In early May, however, the party’s position changed unexpectedly, and some GOP senators unveiled a package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which included a $1 billion provision that, if approved, would spend taxpayer dollars related to the ballroom......

The president kept lobbying, even expressing confidence that lawmakers would eventually give him what he wanted.

Whether Trump realizes this or not, however, his ability to bark orders and have others obey his directives has waned dramatically of late. He’s an unpopular incumbent trying to secure taxpayer money for an unpopular idea in an election year.

Of course, Republicans pulled the provision related to the ballroom — despite the president’s insistence that the White House “won’t be a very secure place.”

That quacking sound you hear in the distance is the sound of an increasingly lame duck.
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