Senate Republicans are proposing the government allocate $72 billion to significantly bolster immigration enforcement – with $1 billion of that allocated toward security for President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom.
In two funding bills unveiled Monday, Senate Republicans unveiled multi-billion-dollar proposed budgets, aimed mostly at bolstering the president’s immigration agenda.
Lawmakers want to give ICE roughly $38.2 billion to be used through 2029 for hiring and training ICE officers, homeland security investigators, other immigration enforcement personnel, maintaining facilities, conducting deportations and more.
Another $25.4 billion would go toward U.S. Customs and Border Protection, $5 billion would be given to the Homeland Security secretary for additional matters and $1.5 billion is for the Justice Department.
But in between DHS and DOJ funding, senators on the Judiciary Committee also allocated $1 billion toward the Secret Service to be used for security features related to the White House ballroom.
Trump and his administration have insisted that White House ballroom construction is necessary to enhance security measures and bolster national security with an underground bunker. This is the argument lawyers for the government have made while trying to convince a federal judge to allow construction to move forward without Congress’s permission.
Since initially unveiling his ballroom idea, the president has said taxpayers would not bear the cost of the $400 million extension to the White House.
But the new spending bill would directly allocate taxpayer dollars to the security-related construction of the ballroom. The bill specifically says the $1 billion cannot be used for non-security matters.
“Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds,” White House Spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement obtained by Politico.
Ingle said the White House “applauds” Congress’s latest proposal.
If passed, the renewed funding for DHS and the Justice Department would add roughy $72 billion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer railed against the proposed funding bill.
“This was all preventable if Republicans had voted with us to extend the ACA tax credits,” Schumer wrote on X. “Instead, $1 billion per day for an aimless war, and another $1 billion for a White House ballroom. A contrast as clear as day: Republicans fight for Trump’s whims; Democrats fight to lower your health care costs.”
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Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused the president of hurting everyday people while asking for money for the ballroom.
“Trump has slashed health care, shuttered doctors offices, and fired thousands… ...but wants $1 billion for a ballroom and tens of billions more for a forever war,” Warner wrote.
The funding bills could pass quickly because they are reconciliations to the larger DHS funding bill that Congress passed last week to open the department after a 75-day partial shutdown.
Funding for DHS ran out in February when Democrats refused to sign off on funding that would support immigration enforcement, after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens during operations in Minnesota.
Last week, House Republicans voted on legislation that would open DHS by funding most agencies other than ICE and Customs and Border Protection, which primarily focus on immigration enforcement.
But now Republicans could pass the bills with a simple majority, rather than relying on the support of Democrats.
The reconciliation bills were meant to be focused on immigration enforcement only, but lawmakers made an exception to add funding for the president’s ballroom.
The recent shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner renewed the administration’s push for the ballroom, this time citing broad security concerns.
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