Schumer promises painful fight in Congress for GOP reconciliation bill

WASHINGTON (CN) — Senate Democrats on Monday outlined their strategy for opposing a multibillion-dollar budget reconciliation bill unveiled last week, vowing to use their limited leverage over the measure to grind proceedings to a crawl.

And though the reconciliation legislation by design can pass the upper chamber without any input from the minority, Democrats argued their procedural hamstringing would force their GOP colleagues to go on the record on healthcare costs, the Iran war and President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project.

Senate Republicans last week introduced their long-awaited $72 billion budget reconciliation bill, the result of a monthslong impasse over funding for the Homeland Security Department and its immigration enforcement agencies. The measure includes billions of dollars in funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, as well as other law enforcement agencies under DHS and the Justice Department.

The reconciliation bill also includes roughly $1 billion for “security adjustments and upgrades” related to the Trump administration’s “modernization” project for the East Wing of the White House. The president wants the new section of the executive residence to feature a 90,000 square foot ballroom.

Writing in a letter to his Democratic colleagues Monday morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued the GOP legislation hands tens of billions of dollars to “rogue” immigration enforcement without any reforms — and slammed the bill for its provision he argued funds the president’s “gaudy” ballroom project.

“Americans do not need a ballroom,” wrote Schumer. “They need relief. They want Congress and their president to address the growing cost crisis bearing down on families across the country.”

There’s little Senate Democrats can do to stop Republicans from passing their proposed budget reconciliation bill — legislation under the budget reconciliation process can clear the chamber on a simple majority vote and without any Democratic support. But Schumer said Democrats would pull every procedural lever available to them to make the process as arduous as possible for Senate Republicans.

“Let me make one thing very clear: Senate Democrats will not let them jam through this bill without making them answer for their endless cost hikes, healthcare cuts and every dollar diverted from American families to Trump’s priorities,” he wrote, adding that the party would use “every tool we have” to lodge its opposition.

Democrats can throw up several roadblocks to the Republican reconciliation bill, including procedural challenges under the Byrd Rule — a Senate regulation governing such spending legislation. Under the Byrd Rule, the minority can move to strike provisions from the overarching measure if they are not relevant to the budget. The Senate parliamentarian ultimately decides which provisions adhere to the Byrd Rule.

And Senate Democrats can also offer floor amendments and force other action in the Senate chamber to gum up the works, a strategy Schumer vowed to undertake.

“[W]e will force vote after vote to make the choice unmistakable: will Republicans vote to help American families — to lower costs, to restore savage healthcare cuts, to roll back cost-spiking tariffs — or will they vote to fund Trump’s gaudy ballroom?” said the top Democrat.

Among the other actions Schumer laid out to oppose the budget reconciliation bill, the Democratic leader also signaled that his colleagues would bring forward legislation forcing the Trump administration to end the war against Iran. “The law is clear: Without congressional authorization, the president must immediately end hostilities,” he said.

The Trump administration has said its war on Tehran, which began in early March, was “terminated” before a 60-day legal deadline for the president to get congressional approval to continue hostilities. But the U.S. military last week struck Iranian oil ports, a move the Pentagon insisted was not intended to resume the war.

Democrats, meanwhile, plan to make Trump’s proposed ballroom project the centerpiece of their messaging against the Republican reconciliation plan. Schumer in his Monday letter branded his GOP colleagues “Ballroom Republicans.”

“At a time when Americans can’t make ends meet, Republicans say ‘Let them eat cake’ — and then hand Trump a billion dollars to build a ballroom to serve it in,” he said.

Senate Republicans have argued that the $1 billion earmark for the East Wing modernization project will not be used to build Trump’s much-vaunted ballroom. They’ve argued the cash, which is appropriated to the U.S. Secret Service, will only be used for “security” purposes, such as the drone-proof bunker planned for below the ballroom.

And in a letter to Republican leadership last week, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Secret Service Director Sean Curran wrote that the funding would be used for “above and below ground requirements” at the East Wing project.

“Importantly, as the legislative text makes explicit, none of these funds will be used to support non-security improvements at the White House,” said Mullin and Curran.

The reconciliation bill’s text does include such restrictions. But it does not explicitly preclude Trump from using the $1 billion in spending on the ballroom itself — and the administration has repeatedly argued in court that the enormous event space is itself an integral part of the project’s security function.

The president has also claimed on several occasions that the East Wing project would be completed without any taxpayer funds and that it had been completely paid for using private donations. The proposed ballroom was initially forecast to cost $200 million.

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