In March, President Donald Trump said “not one dime of government money” would be used for his East Wing ballroom.
Now, Democrats are concerned Trump is going back on his word — and they want answers.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, are calling on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Trump administration’s plan to use nearly $400 million of U.S. Secret Service funds included in the GOP’s reconciliation bill for the ballroom. Murray says that use of funds would likely be illegal.
In a letter to acting GAO Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown — first reported by MS NOW — Murray and Murphy urged the independent, nonpartisan agency to investigate the matter and issue a legal decision, writing that the administration’s use of funds “likely constitutes a violation of the law.”
“It appears OMB director Russell Vought is determined to make a liar out of President Trump,” they said in the letter sent on Monday. “This is not merely an outrageous use of taxpayer funds; it also raises serious legal concerns.”
The inquiry comes after the Office of Management and Budget earlier this month redirected $396,550,000 of funds from the Department of Homeland Security for “White House Security Measures,” according to an online database.
While the OMB didn’t say why it rerouted the funds, The Washington Post reported this month that the money would help fund a new East Wing at the White House — including the ballroom. Murray and Murphy cited The Post’s reporting and said the administration “confirmed to our staff” that the funds would be used “to support the ballroom.”
The Democrats, however, are now alleging that using the money in that manner is illegal because it does not fit one of the purposes the money was appropriated for in the GOP’s reconciliation bill from last summer.
The sprawling reconciliation legislation explicitly says the money can only be used for additional Secret Service resources such as personnel, training facilities, programming and technology or for the “performance, retention, and signing bonuses for qualified” Secret Service personnel.
“The ballroom falls into none of these categories,” Murray and Murphy wrote.
The GAO did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
Murray and Murphy’s call for an investigation into the Secret Service funding is just the latest twist in the saga of the East Wing ballroom.
Trump initially said his East Wing renovation would not disrupt much of the historic building, only to suddenly demolish the entire East Wing without approval from Congress, the National Capital Planning Commission or U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. He then said no public money would be used for the new construction, only to try to get Republicans to slip in $220 million for ballroom security into their latest reconciliation package. After lawmakers from both parties objected, the Trump administration and GOP leaders were forced to remove the appropriation.
But when the Post reported last week that the ballroom project would cost $600 million — up from the initial $400 million estimate — the outlet also said more than half the money would still come from taxpayers, according to a copy of the contractor estimate.
That has Murray, Murphy and other Democrats up in arms.
Murray and Murphy note in their letter that the Antideficiency Act prohibits funds from going to purposes outside of specific appropriations, and they write that using Secret Service funding for the ballroom “likely constitutes a violation of the law.”
“We, therefore, request that GAO investigate and provide a legal decision on whether the administration’s use of these funds violates federal law,” they said.
The post Democrats demand answers about Trump’s ballroom costs appeared first on MS NOW.
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