Senate Republicans tucked an eye-popping figure into funding for security measures tied to President Donald Trump’s ballroom, a project the administration once touted as being completely privately funded.
The GOP released legislation for its immigration enforcement-focused reconciliation package late Monday night, setting the total spending at $72 billion. But it also included $1 billion in taxpayer funding for the ballroom addition to the White House.
Republicans had largely kept an arm’s length distance from the project, which Trump first announced last year. The construction drew criticism over the demolition of the East Wing and the flow of outside funding, which the administration has touted as a win for taxpayers.
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But since the third apparent assassination attempt against Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton last month, Republicans have jumped on the ballroom bandwagon.
The funding is tucked into the Senate Judiciary Committee’s portion of the reconciliation package, which tees up nearly $31 billion for ICE, $3.5 billion for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), $2.5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and just shy of $1.5 billion for the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, pitched his portion of the bill by bucking Democrats’ desire for “open borders” and their push to defund the police.
“Republicans won’t allow our country to be dragged backwards by Democrats’ radical, anti-law enforcement agenda,” Grassley said in a statement.
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The ballroom funding would be doled out to the Secret Service and is explicitly meant for “security adjustments and upgrades,” including “above-ground and below-ground security features,” according to the legislation.
Notably, the measure sets guardrails on the funding so that none of the taxpayer money would be used for “non-security elements of the East Wing Modernization Project.”
Adding funding for the ballroom could be a slight to some Republicans who wanted to use the latest reconciliation opportunity to go big on affordability issues, aid for farmers or spending cuts, among several other wish list items.
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Senate Democrats are already going after the GOP for including the project.
“Republicans are on a different planet than American families,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on X. “Republicans looked at families drowning in bills and decided what they really needed was more raids and a Trump ballroom.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also released its portion of the reconciliation package, which tees up nearly $33 billion in funding.
Paul’s measure included over $19 billion for CBP, $7.5 billion for ICE, nearly $3.5 billion for border security and $2.5 billion for DHS.
“Senate Democrats refuse to vote for a single dollar to secure our borders or enforce our immigration laws, even against the most violent illegal aliens,” Paul said in a statement. “To make sure those vital functions are funded, my committee will vote later this month to provide the funding needed.”
