Senate Republicans’ hopes for a low-fanfare week capped off with a major policy victory have been quickly unraveled by a series of setbacks stretching from the campaign trail to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom.
Republican leaders are facing curveballs from Trump in his bid to oust their colleagues Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) amid unrelenting GOP heartburn over hundreds of millions of dollars in security upgrades for his ballroom tucked into the party’s $70 billion immigration enforcement bill.
For now, Republicans are urging unity in the coming days as they search for a path forward in the Senate on the so-called reconciliation bill to fund immigration agencies that will only require a simple majority to pass.
“My goal, as always, is going to be to make sure we are as united as possible, working together with our colleagues in the House and with the White House on an agenda that will help us not only succeed as a country but hopefully prepare and ensure that our incumbents are in the best possible position to win their elections,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters.
But Trump’s thumb on the scales to boost primary challengers to Cassidy and Cornyn is doing him no favors when the party appears to lack enough votes on the reconciliation legislation in its current form. Several rank-and-file members, including Cassidy, are thumbing their noses at the more than $1 billion in White House security funding, $220 million of which is earmarked for ballroom-related security despite longtime promises from Trump that the $400 million project would be entirely donor-funded.
“That’s just not worth it,” said Cassidy, who was shut out by Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming over the weekend from advancing to a primary runoff. Cassidy is among the Republicans who remain noncommittal on whether they’ll vote to advance the reconciliation bill that could come as early as Wednesday.
“I just came off the campaign trail; people love the president,” he said. “But I can tell you, $1 billion for the ballroom when they’re paying $300 more a month for gasoline, and there’s no end in sight and they can’t afford it, that’s not where their head is or not where my head is.”
In the wake of Trump effectively ousting Cassidy, Trump surprised many on Tuesday by endorsing Attorney General Ken Paxton over Cornyn in their primary runoff. The move left Senate Republicans across the ideological spectrum fuming, ranging from leadership to close Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Many now fear the party could have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to keep the seat red in the general election if Paxton is the nominee against Democrat James Talarico.
“None of us control what the president does. He made his decision about that,” Thune said. “That doesn’t change the way I feel. I am certainly supportive of — continue to be support of — Sen. Cornyn and his reelection.”
Trump ultimately deemed Paxton the more loyal and conservative candidate. But many GOP senators see the state official as a liability with personal and professional baggage that includes an impeachment, an indictment, and accusations of adultery. Graham warned a Paxton nomination could cost Republicans “at least” three times more in the November general than Cornyn.
“If Paxton wins the primary, we’ll be for him, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the pathway for Paxton is there, but it’s more uphill and it will cost more,” Graham said.
Republicans still hope to notch a win by week’s end in the Senate and send their reconciliation bill to the GOP-controlled House. But another wrench in the intraparty policy debate is which provisions can survive the so-called Byrd rule that governs such party-line budget measures.
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So far, the Senate’s referee, Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, has ruled the White House security funding is out of bounds and must be altered, if Republicans wish to keep it.
“I think that the next step for us is to figure out what we can get 50 [votes] for in the Senate, 218 [votes] for in the House. That’s always the case on every reconciliation bill,” Thune said. “In the end, it’s going to come down to what we have the votes to pass.”
