Republicans’ planned Homeland Security spending bill has become the latest sticking point for President Donald Trump’s proposed White House ballroom.
But the top Republican senator behind the text says it’s not for the ballroom. This comes despite Trump and the White House stressing the ballroom’s necessity for security after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last week.
On Monday evening, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released the legislative text for its part of the proposed reconciliation bill.
Republicans hope to pass an additional spending bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection after Democrats opposed including funding in the annual Homeland Security spending bill.
But the bill also sets aside money $1 billion between the fiscal years of 2026 and 2029 “for the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades” within the perimeter of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the U.S. Secret Service “relating to the East Wing Modernization Project.”
The East Wing Modernization Project is the official name for the White House’s ballroom project. The president has said the ballroom would cost $400 million and has said in the past the money would come from private donations.
But Grassley’s spokesperson said the money would not go toward the ballroom, pointing to part of the legislative text that says “None of the funds made available under this section may be used for non-security elements of the East Wing Modernization Project.”
“It provides funds for Secret Service enhancements, including, but not limited to security enhancements related to the East Wing Modernization Project,” Hannah Akey, a spokesperson for Grassley, told The Independent over email. “This necessary funding will ensure all presidents, their families and their staffs are adequately protected.”
Akey said the money would be for securing the White House compound and how it must be secured during the current threat environment.
“After three attempted assassinations against the current president, it’s clearer than ever that investing in Secret Service is essential,” Akey said.
Trump has made building the ballroom a major priority of his presidency, going on a late-night social media reposting spree about the facility.
But immediately, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee,
“While Americans are struggling to make ends meet as a result of President Trump’s failed policies, Republicans are focused on providing tens of billions of dollars for the President’s vanity ballroom project and cruel mass deportation campaign,” Durbin said in a statement. “Republicans are in danger of losing control of Congress in November, so they are going outside the usual bipartisan appropriations process to fund these unpopular policies through the end of the Trump Administration.”
But even after the shooting at the dinner in April, a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll showed that only 28 percent of respondents supported the idea of a ballroom.
