U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ducked a question Wednesday on whether she supports a move from her fellow Republicans to use $1 billion in public money for security-related aspects of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project.

Earlier this week, Senate Republicans, led by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, put a $1 billion request for ballroom security improvements, including “above-ground and below-ground” features, in a broader $72 billion immigration enforcement bill they plan to pass along party lines through the budget “reconciliation” process. Trump wants Congress to pass it by June 1.

The Trump administration previously said it would aim to raise $400 million in private donations to pay for the president’s new 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the East Wing, and the Republican president said multiple times last year that the project would require no public dollars.

“(The ballroom) is being paid for 100% by me and some friends of mine,” Trump said in October.

The project is facing a pending lawsuit from the nation’s top historic preservation group. Trump has also sought a vast makeover of other spaces in the White House and around Washington, including a 250-foot “Independence Arch” across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.

The new proposal to have the public pay for the security aspects of the ballroom puts Republican senators in the position of trying to square Trump’s past comments with the new budget language.

Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, declined to opine on the $1 billion request and sought to distance herself and her committee from it when the Press Herald asked Wednesday if she supports the proposal. She noted the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security panels released the proposed reconciliation text, which she said “will face strict scrutiny to ensure compliance with the Senate’s rules for reconciliation.”

“As the process moves forward, Congress will need to hear the case for why the proposed funding is necessary and how it would be used to upgrade White House security,” Collins, who is seeking reelection to a sixth term this year, said in a statement.

She also referred to last month’s incident in which an armed man attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner that Trump and other high-ranking officials attended, exchanging gunfire with Secret Service agents before being detained. The 31-year-old California man has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president and other offenses. Trump and the White House have pointed to the case in arguing for the ballroom project.

Senate Republicans could pass the funding package over Democratic opposition because the budget reconciliation process allows for measures to advance with a simple majority rather than the 60-vote threshold that most other legislation requires to move forward.

The ballroom proposal will not go through the committee that Collins chairs. But as a Republican vote in a closely divided Senate, Collins’ thoughts on the ballroom are still noteworthy. At least one Republican has said he is skeptical of the public funding proposal, which could die with just a few Republican “no” votes.

Before Republicans can vote on it, the Senate parliamentarian must determine whether reconciliation package items are “substantive to the budget.” After months of gridlock over Homeland Security funding amid Trump’s controversial immigration enforcement efforts, the latest bill includes about $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $26 billion for Customs and Border Protection through 2029.

While the White House defended the use of $1 billion as bolstering security for its “long overdue East Wing Modernization Project,” taxpayer advocates criticized the proposal. Steve Ellis, president of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, called it “a huge overreach.”

U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, criticized the $1 billion ballroom security request in a Thursday morning interview as “ridiculous and unnecessary” and pointed to how the Trump administration is simultaneously proposing to cut the National Park Service budget by a little more than $1 billion.

“This is the public’s house,” King said of the White House. “This is the people of America’s house. It’s not his house.”