Senate GOP Proposes $1B in Taxpayer Funds for Trump's Ballroom

Congress Capitol
Reuters
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Happy Tuesday! On this date 65 years ago, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space when he made a 15-minute-and-28-second suborbital flight before landing in the Atlantic Ocean.

Here's your evening update.

Republican DHS Funding Bill Includes $1 Billion for Trump's Ballroom Security

Senate Republicans have released the details of a roughly $72 billion reconciliation package that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through the rest of President Trump's term in office.

The bills, released late Monday by the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, would fund the immigration agencies via a partisan process that aims to overcome a Democratic effort to block funding until significant reforms of the agencies' tactics are put in place. They are part of a two-step plan that includes a separate bill passed last week that funded the Department of Homeland Security, except for the immigration enforcement operations, while ending the record-long departmental shutdown that began in February.

Enter the ballroom: Unexpectedly, the proposed reconciliation package includes $1 billion for the U.S. Secret Service to make "security adjustments and upgrades" on "the East Wing Modernization Project," the site of Trump's grand new ballroom. The text says the money can be used to cover "above-ground and below-ground security features" but cannot be used for "non-security elements."

Trump has repeatedly pledged that no public funds would be used for his grand ballroom, with private donors picking up the estimated $400 million tab for the above-ground portions of the facility, which reportedly includes extensive security features below ground as well. Following an alleged assassination attempt at the Washington Hilton hotel in late April, Trump and his Republican allies have been pushing for the government to cover the cost of the entire ballroom complex on national security grounds.

A federal judge last month ordered the above-ground construction on the ballroom to stop until Congress provides authorization for the project, but work is proceeding at least until a federal appeals court hearing in the case next month.

The White House said Tuesday that it would welcome funding for the "long overdue" project. Democrats, on the other hand, said the funding proposal highlights how out of touch Trump and Republicans are at the moment. "Republicans are on a different planet than American families," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. "Republicans looked at families drowning in bills and decided what they really needed was more raids and a Trump ballroom."

Breaking down the billions: The GOP's proposed funding includes:

  • $30.7 billion for ICE personnel and operations;
  • $7.5 billion to hire and train ICE agents;
  • $19.1 billion for Customs and Border Patrol;
  • $5 billion for DHS;
  • $3.5 billion for Border Patrol agents;
  • $3.5 billion for border security;
  • $1.5 billion for the Justice Department;
  • $1 billion for security upgrades at the White House.

No spending cuts that would offset the spending increases are included in the proposals.

Republicans say the funding will remove the threat of a shutdown at the immigration agencies for several years. "The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking action to help provide certainty for federal law enforcement and safer streets for American families," Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. "We will work to ensure this critical funding gets signed into law without unnecessary delay."

Some critics, though, have said the money is excessive while expressing concerns that the multi-year funding plan will make it easier for the immigration agencies to ignore oversight by Congress. "The money for ICE, CBP, and DHS at large has enormous flexibility, with far less accountability or oversight than typical annual appropriations for DHS funding has," Bobby Kogan, the senior director of federal budget policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said on social media.

What's next: With Republicans racing to meet Trump's June 1 deadline for getting the legislation to his desk, lawmakers have just a few weeks to work through any issues and hold votes when they return next week. Senate Democrats reportedly will try to strip the $1 billion in ballroom funding from the package.

Quote of the Day

"So when I did this [launched the war with Iran] I thought the market would go down 25%, and I think - I thought that was a great deal if it did. If it went down 25%, I was satisfied. I said, because we cannot let these people have a nuclear weapon. They'll use it. We can't. I also thought oil would go up to $200, $250, maybe $300, and I knew it would be short term, but I thought it would go. I looked today, it's like at $102. And that's a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged."

  • President Trump, in remarks to reporters in the Oval Office today when asked about the recent rise in gas prices.

Oil prices fell today, giving back some of the big increase seen on Monday, as the U.S. military works to clear a path for oil tankers and other ships traverse the Strait of Hormuz. The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, fell about 4% to just below $110 after briefly topping $115 on Monday. It remains sharply higher than the roughly $72 level seen in late February before the war started. And the surge in prices at the pump, up about 50% in just over two months, from $2.98 a gallon on February 26 to $4.48 today, is the sharpest spike since at least 1993, according to Bloomberg's Liam Denning.

U.S. stocks, meanwhile, continue climbing to record highs as companies report strong profits. It may have helped that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters this morning that the ceasefire with Iran "is not over," despite more than 10 attacks by Iran against U.S. forces since the ceasefire went into effect. "This has been a 'why ask why' market,'" Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, told the Associated Press. "You just have to go with it."

Number of the Day: $529 Billion

President Trump's pricing deals with drug companies could save $529 billion over the next 10 years, according to a new report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The analysis also estimates that federal and state governments could save Medicaid $64.3 billion because of the deals, including $36.6 billion for the feds and $27.6 billion for states.

Another projection run by White House economists, which started with new drugs introduced in 2025, estimated total 10-year savings of $733 billion.

Trump has pressed prescription drug manufacturers to offer new drugs at prices comparable to those in other developed countries, which he calls a "most favored nation" policy. He has cut deals with 17 companies and has put those agreements and his efforts to lower prescription drug costs front and center in his campaign pitch heading into the November midterm elections, when affordability issues are expected to be top of mind for voters.

"Few of the details of the deals struck by the Trump administration and 17 leading pharmaceutical companies have been made public, making it hard to independently verify the projected savings," Josh Boak of the Associated Press notes. "The scope of the savings claimed by the Trump administration are likely to intensify the scrutiny by Democrats, who counter that any price reductions would be offset by higher costs for prescription drugs not covered by the 'most favored nation' framework. One of their main critiques is that pharmaceutical companies have increased their profit margins while working with the administration."

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