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Republicans are rushing to give President Donald Trump’s controversial ballroom addition to the White House the congressional go-ahead after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
Lawmakers argue that Trump’s desire to build a ballroom at the White House — which ground to a halt after being snarled in litigation — would provide an ideal secure venue for future events following the shooting at the Washington Hilton on Saturday.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., announced he would try to fast-track a bill to give congressional approval for construction of the ballroom in the Senate when the upper chamber returns this week.
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He argued that “a president of any party should be able to host events in a secure area without attendees worrying about their safety.”
“It is an embarrassment to the strongest nation on Earth that we cannot host gatherings in our nation’s capital, including ones attended by our president, without the threat of violence and attempted assassinations,” Sheehy said in a statement.
It’s an about-face on Capitol Hill for Republicans, who, since Trump first announced his plans to build a ballroom last year, have largely kept their distance from the issue.
And it’s one spurred by the shooting on Saturday night, when Cole Allen was subdued by federal law enforcement after exchanging gunfire near the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where Trump and his Cabinet, along with hundreds of guests, were seated for the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
But a lawsuit and an ensuing court-ordered injunction against the 90,000-square-foot, $400 million gilded behemoth — which was being built where the White House’s East Wing once stood — have thrown the future of the project into question.
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A federal court ordered in March that the construction end without congressional approval. That ruling was later appealed to allow construction to continue below ground for what Trump previously described as a “shed” for a military complex.
After the shooting, Trump pushed for construction to continue.
“We need the ballroom,” Trump said at a news conference Saturday night. “That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it.”
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Now Republicans are getting involved. Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Randy Fine, R-Fla., like Sheehy, are planning to introduce legislation that would give congressional approval to the project.
“I don’t believe congressional approval is required for the project, but if it’ll keep activist judges on the sideline, so be it,” Boebert said on X.
The latest legislative push in the lower chamber comes during a week full of deadlines and must-do items for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Among them is consideration of the Senate’s budget blueprint to fund immigration operations for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.
At least one lawmaker, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wants any consideration of the blueprint to “provide for construction of a secure ballroom on White House grounds.”
For now, it’s not entirely a partisan issue.
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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., one of the few Democrats at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, argued that rancor between the aisles should be put aside to support ballroom construction.
“That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government,” Fetterman said on X. “After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.”
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