WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday ripped Republicans for planning a vote on legislation this week providing $1 billion for President Donald Trump’s ballroom at the White House, as GOP members prepare to return to Washington and defend a project that has come to symbolize many of the Trump administration’s failures.

“That is what today’s Republicans have become: Ballroom Republicans — asking working families to pay the price while Donald Trump pockets the perks,” Schumer said in a letter to his Democratic colleagues on Monday morning.

After initially saying the ballroom would be funded with private donations, congressional Republicans are now moving to pay for it after a federal judge said the project needs approval from Congress. Trump has claimed an assassination attempt against him at a press gala in a Washington hotel shows the need for a secure ballroom that can host large events, even though security wasn’t mentioned at the outset of the project.

In a statement Friday, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle insisted there would be no public cost to the ballroom, despite the billion dollars outlined in legislative text.

“President Trump is making the White House beautiful and giving it the glory it deserves at no cost to the taxpayer — something everyone should celebrate,” Ingle said in an email. “Only people with a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome would find a problem with that.”

The legislation specifies $1 billion for “security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project” and says the funds can’t be used for “non-security elements of the East Wing Modernization Project.” Since the president now says the entire project is a security necessity, it might not be much of a limitation.

The ballroom project started with the surprise demolition of the East Wing of the White House last year, and it is highly unpopular. Schumer’s letter shows Democrats will aggressively highlight the contrast between addressing Americans’ affordability concerns and the president’s obsessive focus on remaking Washington in his image.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) last week released a fact sheet detailing how the $1 billion allocated for the ballroom could instead help her home state. Among the options: restoring the Medicaid cuts Republicans included in last year’s budget bill; restoring the Affordable Care Act subsidies the GOP allowed to expire last year; covering childcare costs for 78,995 infants in the state; or covering rent for 62,096 households.

“Let’s be absolutely clear: this is a vanity project that did not need to happen, and now Nevadans’ hard-earned money will be wasted at a time when they’re being squeezed by the spike in prices at the pump, grocery, and doctor’s office,” Rosen said.

Democratic Senate aides expect other members to put out similar releases aiming to highlight the gap between the GOP’s focus on the ballroom project and the party’s failure to pass legislation addressing Americans’ worries about the cost of living.

Republicans added the ballroom funding to a special budget bill they were planning to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The budget process allows the majority party to sidestep the Senate filibuster, meaning Republicans could pass the bill without needing a single Democratic vote.

Many Republicans, however, are uncomfortable with funding the project, and it’s possible the GOP will pull the funds from the legislation. Swing-district members are arguing it would be a politically poisonous vote.

“Yippee,” one Republican Senate aide texted when asked how the party felt about having to defend the bill to reporters this week. (HuffPost confirmed the aide was being sarcastic.)

Schumer said Democrats will make the legislative process for the ballroom bill as difficult as possible, including with votes on symbolic amendments on things like healthcare.

“Democrats will fight the Republicans’ reconciliation bill with every tool we have,” Schumer said. “And we will force vote after vote to make the choice unmistakable: will Republicans vote to help American families — to lower costs, to restore savage health care cuts, to roll back cost-spiking tariffs — or will they vote to fund Trump’s gaudy ballroom?”

By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.