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The Senate parliamentarian rejected the last item in the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill — $1 billion in White House and Secret Service security funding tied in part to President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, considered nonpartisan since taking the role in 2012 during former President Barack Obama’s administration, ruled the funding provision could not be included as written under budget reconciliation rules, an outcome long expected from both sides of the aisle.
Ryan Wrasse, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a social media post that Republicans would keep trying to revise the legislation to try to gain the parliamentarian’s approval.
“Redraft. Refine. Resubmit,” Wrasse wrote on X. “None of this is abnormal during a Byrd process.”
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The decision deals a blow to efforts to pass the money with a simple majority as part of a broader roughly $72 billion package focused largely on immigration enforcement after Democrats forced those budgetary items under the longest shutdowns in American history.
MacDonough ruled that the security funding provision falls under chamber rules that require 60 votes to pass most legislation, according to the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the Senate Budget Committee ranking member.
“While we expect Republicans to change this bill to appease Trump, Democrats are prepared to challenge any change to this bill,” Merkley said.
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Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough forced Senate Republicans to rewrite the $72 billion reconciliation bill with regard to the $1 billion for White House security and ballroom backing. (Getty Images/Reuters)
The parliamentarian interprets Senate rules, including whether legislative provisions are permitted. While MacDonough is nonpartisan by Senate standards, she served as former Vice President Al Gore’s advisor in the Bush v. Gore 2000 election challenge that was resolved in the Supreme Court.
Her ruling came days after several Senate Republicans questioned the Trump administration’s $1 billion request, with some saying they needed far more detail before backing taxpayer funding connected to a project Trump has said would be privately financed.
“It was one thing when private dollars were building it,” Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, told Digital before a closed-door briefing with Secret Service Director Sean Curran. “If you’re asking me for a billion dollars, I have some really hard questions.”
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President Donald Trump holds rendering of the White House ballroom in an Air Force One media scrum. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)
Curtis added that if an employee brought him a billion-dollar project with little explanation, he would respond: “You made that number up.”
The request included $220 million for “White House complex hardening,” including above- and below-ground security enhancements for the ballroom, according to a one-page breakdown obtained by Digital. Those upgrades included bulletproof glass, drone detection technology, chemical filtration and detection systems and other national security measures.
Another $180 million was proposed for a White House visitor screening center, while $600 million would go toward Secret Service training, protection for Trump and other officials, counter-drone measures and other security needs after Trump dodged an unprecedented third assassination attempt last month.
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Republicans defending the request have argued Democrats and critics are mischaracterizing the funding as a direct ballroom subsidy.
“What was clear today is this whole statement, ‘It’s a billion dollars for a ballroom.’ Anyone who prints that is printing something they know is a lie,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Digital. “It’s not a billion dollars for the ballroom.”
Still, other Republicans said the administration had not fully explained how it arrived at the number. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said officials needed to provide “more details about exactly how they arrived at the figure,” while Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said the administration would have to explain to taxpayers what return they would get for the spending.
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The White House and GOP supporters have framed the funding as a national security matter, citing threats against Trump and the need to modernize protective infrastructure at the White House. The administration has said the ballroom would reduce reliance on temporary outdoor structures for large events while improving security for the president, his family and visitors.
The ballroom project has faced opposition since Trump ordered the demolition of the White House’s East Wing last year to make way for the new facility. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued, arguing the administration lacked authority to tear down the historic structure or build a major new facility without explicit congressional approval. A federal appeals court in April allowed construction to continue while the legal fight proceeds.
Trump has said the ballroom itself would be funded by $400 million in private donations and completed around September 2028, near the end of his second term. The parliamentarian’s ruling does not end the broader spending bill, but it complicates GOP efforts to keep the White House security money in a package Republicans hope to pass along party lines.
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Democrats have cast the project as excessive and politically tone-deaf, arguing Republicans are trying to steer taxpayer money toward Trump’s signature construction project while Americans face rising costs.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the ballroom “a disgrace” and said Republicans should reject the funding.
“The bottom line is, this ballroom is a disgrace,” he said. “The Republicans know it. Let’s see if they have the guts to do what they know is right, both substantively and politically, and tell Trump we don’t need a God — we don’t need a damn ballroom.”
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Notably, the ballroom would not be finished until 2028, the last year of Trump’s second, and last, presidential term by constitutional law. Trump argues it would serve Democrat and Republican administrations equally.
‘ Alex Miller and Reuters contributed to this report.
