US President Donald Trump speaks to the press near the construction site of his planned ballroom at the White House in Washington, DC on May 19, 2026.
Kent Nishimura | Afp | Getty Images
Senate Republicans on Wednesday cut up to $1 billion in security funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed White House Ballroom and the Secret Service from a revised immigration enforcement bill.
According to multiple media reports, Republican Party leaders privately concluded that the funding proposal could derail the broader immigration bill both politically and procedurally.
The provision also raised political concerns among some Senate Republicans, who feared the funding could make the party appear out of touch as voters grapple with high costs ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Trump had personally pushed lawmakers to approve funding for the controversial ballroom project and the Secret Service. Trump administration officials argued the money was necessary given the alleged assassination attempt against Trump on April 25 at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton.
Administration officials said only about $200 million went to the ballroom, with the rest going toward other Secret Service upgrades.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s updated bill on Wednesday came after weeks of internal Republican debates over whether to keep the requested funds in a broader reconciliation package that would send tens of billions of dollars to two agencies: Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
Republicans are trying to pass the measure through a process called “reconciliation,” which allows budget bills to be approved by the Senate with a simple majority rather than 60 votes.
There are only 53 Republican senators, meaning the GOP majority will need some of the 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats to vote for a reconciliation measure if it is to pass.
In May, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that an earlier version of the bill that included funding for ballroom security could not be passed through a settlement because it did not comply with the so-called Byrd Rule. This rule prohibits provisions in bills that are unrelated to federal spending or are outside the jurisdiction of the committees that drafted them.
Had the ballroom provision remained in the bill, Democrats would have challenged it, forcing Republicans to comply with the higher threshold.
The White House on Wednesday rejected the idea that Republicans had specifically chosen to drop the provision, arguing that the language was removed because of the parliamentarian’s decision.
“The parliamentarian’s decision was announced weeks ago,” a White House spokesman said. “This wording is incorrect because it implies that Republicans removed it intentionally and not under parliamentary pressure.”
However, after the parliamentarian’s decision last month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the bill would be rewritten to include funding and comply with the Byrd Rule.
“We will try a new approach,” Thune said at the time.
He pointed out that it took five attempts to win parliamentarians’ approval of a tax and spending bill last year.
“You continue to think about how do we address the concerns that have been raised there and how can we achieve that?” Thune said.
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