AJAX pass along a variable

I have an AJAX call that works fine.  I would like to recycle it and pass along a variable and am not 100% sure on how to accomplish this.
If I have Wordpress webpage and I have the category in a Variable $cat = "news".  I would like to pass it to the AJAX.  What I have so far:

<script>
jQuery(function ($) {
    $('.post-listing').append('<span class="load-more"></span>');
    var button = $('.post-listing .load-more');
    var page = 2;
    var loading = false;
    var scrollHandling = {
        allow: true,
        reallow: function () {
            scrollHandling.allow = true;
        }
    };

    $(window).scroll(function () {
        if (!loading && scrollHandling.allow) {
            scrollHandling.allow = false;
            setTimeout(scrollHandling.reallow, scrollHandling);
            var offset = $(button).offset().top - $(window).scrollTop();
            if (700 > offset) {
                loading = true;
                $('#loading-image').bind('ajaxStart', function(){
    $(this).show();
}).bind('ajaxStop', function(){
    $(this).hide();
});
                var data = {
                    action: 'be_ajax_load_more',
                    page: page,
                    query: beloadmore.query,
                    
                };
                $.post(beloadmore.url, data, function (res) {
                    if (res.success) {
                        $('.post-listing').append(res.data);
                        $('.post-listing').append(button);
                        page = page + 1;
                        loading = false;
                    } else {
                        //console.log(res);
                        // console.log('hi');
                    }
                }).fail(function (xhr, textStatus, e) {
                    //console.log(xhr.responseText);
                    //console.log('fail');
                });

            }
        }
    });
});

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And then The PHP.  Please notice on line:7 is where I need to insert the Variable

<?php
function be_ajax_load_more() {

    $args = array(
        'posts_per_page' => -1,
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'category_name' => $cat,
        'post_status' => 'publish'
    );
    ob_start();
    $posts_array = get_posts($args);
    $kount = count($posts_array);
$kount3 = $kount - ($kount % 3);
$posts_array = array_slice($posts_array, 0, $kount3);
    global $post;
    foreach ($posts_array as $post) {
        $field_name = "show_video";
        $id = $post->ID;
        $video = get_field($field_name, $id);
        $category = $category[0]->cat_name;
        $title = $post->post_title;
        $title = mb_strimwidth($title, 0, 50, '...');
        $tumbnail = get_the_post_thumbnail($id);
        $category = get_the_category();
        ?>      


        <div class="col-md-4 col-sm-6 col-xs-12">
            <div id="post-<?php echo $id; ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
                <div class="item" onclick="document.location.href = '<?php the_permalink($post->ID); ?>'; return false">

                    <div class="thumbnail">


                        <?php
                        if (!empty($video)) {
                            echo '<div class="video-play">
                                            <img src="../news/wp-content/themes/surfline/img/playbtn.svg" alt="video" class="video-play-controller">
                                            </div>';
                        }
                        ?>   
                        <?php
                        the_post_thumbnail($id);
                        ?>         </div>


                    <div class="meta">

                       <?php
                                   foreach ($category as $c) {
                                        $cat_name = $c->cat_name;
                                        $cat_slug = $c->slug;
                                        if ($cat_name != "All") {
                                            if ($cat_name != "Curated") {
                                                echo '<a href="../' . $cat_slug. '">' . $cat_name . '</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;';
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }                
                                    ?> 

                        <span><i class="fa fa-clock-o" aria-hidden="true"></i>&nbsp;<?php echo get_the_date('Y-m-d'); ?>  
                            <?php
                            $before = "| <strong>Updated</strong>&nbsp;";
                            if (get_the_modified_time('U') != get_the_time('U')) {
                                echo $before;
                                echo human_time_diff(get_the_modified_date('U'), current_time('timestamp')) . ' ' . __('ago');
                            }
                            ?>
                        </span>

                    </div>
        <?php echo'<div class="headline">' . $title . '</div>'; ?>

                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
        <?php
    }
    //  END Foreach

    wp_reset_postdata();
    $data = ob_get_clean();
    wp_send_json_success($data);
    wp_die();
}

add_action('wp_ajax_be_ajax_load_more', 'be_ajax_load_more');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_be_ajax_load_more', 'be_ajax_load_more');

function be_load_more_js() {
    global $wp_query;
    $args = array(
        'url' => admin_url('admin-ajax.php'),
        'query' => $wp_query->query,
    );

    wp_enqueue_script('be-load-more', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/js/load-more.js', array('jquery'), '1.0', true);
    wp_localize_script('be-load-more', 'beloadmore', $args);
}

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'be_load_more_js');

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