Six GOP senators vote to block Trump’s White House ballroom

Six GOP senators voted with Democrats in support of a proposal sponsored by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) to block the construction of President Trump’s 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom unless Congress authorizes the project.

The amendment would have given Congress sole authority to construct a new ballroom and would have barred any federal funds or private donations from being used to build the new ballroom without congressional approval.

Six Republicans voted with Democrats to waive a procedural objection to the amendment: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Jon Husted (Ohio), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Thom Tillis (N.C.).

The amendment — which was proposed during a vote-a-rama on Republicans’ reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement — needed 60 votes to overcome a point-of-order objection.

It failed by a vote of 52-47.

Collins, Husted and Sullivan face tough reelection races this fall.

A new Fox News poll of 1,015 registered voters in Ohio conducted between May 28 and June 1 showed Husted trailing former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) in the Ohio Senate race.

A new UMasss Lowell/YouGov poll of 650 likely Maine voters conducted from May 13 to May 26 found Democratic candidate Graham Platner leading Collins with 48 percent support to her 43 percent.

An Alaska Survey Research poll of 1,283 registered voters conducted in March found former Rep. Mary Peltola (D) leading Sullivan in the Alaska Senate race.

Senate Republicans stripped a provision to provide up to $1 billion in federal funding for the ballroom from the revised text of the budget reconciliation bill unveiled by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week.

The budget reconciliation package initially included $1 billion to provide security upgrades to the White House and the new ballroom, something that spurred strong pushback from GOP senators.

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