Senate Republicans are looking to give the U.S. Secret Service $1 billion to shore up security for President Donald Trump’s future White House ballroom, as part of a broader immigration enforcement package.
Two GOP-led Senate committees unveiled late Monday their roughly $70 billion package to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol, which they plan to pass with only Republican votes.
The Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees are aiming to spend roughly $38 billion for ICE and around $26 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol functions and upgrades, according to legislative text released by the panels. The funding would run through the end of September 2029.
The Judiciary Committee also tucked in the additional $1 billion in Secret Service funding that could go toward Trump’s ballroom project.
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The text allocates the cash for “security adjustments and upgrades … to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and below-ground security features,” later stating the funding can’t be used for “non-security elements” of the project.
The Trump administration has long said the president would rely on money from private donors rather than American taxpayers, to fund his East Wing renovation.
But in the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month, Republicans have grown increasingly vocal about the need for a White House ballroom, with some arguing that the public should foot some of the cost to aid construction.
“Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds. Due in part to the recent assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham demanded last week that the Senate vote on his separate bill to authorize $400 million for the ballroom, including a national security annex underground, after the shooting, though Senate Majority Leader John Thune didn’t indicate whether he would take up the legislation.
Asked about the prospect of using taxpayer money on the project, Sen. Katie Britt, who is backing Graham’s effort, argued at the time that “we need to make sure that we have oversight and do that responsibly,” and said the ballroom will mostly be for “future presidents” since it won’t be completed until further into Trump’s term.
The attack, the Alabama Republican told CNN, “kind of showed us where we are as a nation, and it’s not a good place. I mean, we have people that, instead of taking their fight to the ballot box, are taking their fight to people with bullets, and it’s fundamentally un-American.”
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The committees are expected to mark up the immigration enforcement package after senators return next week from their recess away from Washington, keeping in step with congressional Republicans’ plans to fund Trump’s border and immigration priorities through a multi-step budgetary process, known as reconciliation, which allows them to bypass a Senate filibuster.
Last month, the president publicly issued a directive to GOP congressional leaders to figure out full funding for the Department of Homeland Security by June 1.
Before returning to their home districts for the week-long break, lawmakers voted to reopen key parts of the department after weeks of infighting. But the bill that ended the record DHS shutdown did not include money for federal immigration enforcement.
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