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A Senate referee struck funding for security at the White House’s East Wing from a Republican budget bill on Saturday, in what Democrats are celebrating as a blow to President Donald Trump’s ballroom ambitions. Republicans, however, argue the security funding is unrelated to the White House ballroom, and will soon be restored.
Republicans are attempting to pass a budget reconciliation bill to inject billions in funding for border and immigration enforcement without needing any Democrat votes in the Senate.
The push comes after the longest government shutdown in history of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in which Democrats withheld support for funding the agency, demanding major restraints on immigration enforcement operations.
Under the reconciliation process, the Senate’s “Byrd rule” forbids provisions that are too narrowly targeted or are more policy-oriented than they are budgetary. The rule also blocks committees from providing funding to agencies outside their jurisdiction.
The Senate’s parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough—essentially the chamber’s umpire—settles these disputes.
The Republicans’ proposals included $1 billion for Secret Service security upgrades, some of which would be inside the “White House Compound to support enhancements … relating to the East Wing Modernization Project.”
The White House has repeatedly denied any of the funding would go to the construction of a White House ballroom, and Senate judiciary committee Republicans pointed to language in the bill explicitly barring taxpayer funds going to “non-security elements” at the White House.
On Saturday, responding to Democrats’ objection, MacDonough declared that funding for security at the White House’s East Wing is subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Senate’s budget committee, celebrated the ruling as a de facto bulldozing of Trumps’ ballroom dreams.
“The American people shouldn’t spend a single dime on Trump’s gold-plated ballroom boondoggle,” wrote Merkley, who also accused Republicans of funding “lawless agencies” with their funding to immigration enforcement agencies.
According to Merkley, the parliamentarian ruled “a project as complex and large in scale as Trump’s proposed ballroom necessarily involves the coordination of many government agencies which span the jurisdiction of many Senate committees.”
But Republicans argue they can easily overcome the ruling by rewriting the text and resubmitting it to the parliamentarian.
“Redraft. Refine. Resubmit. None of this is abnormal during a Byrd process,” wrote Ryan Wrasse, a communications director for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on X on Saturday in response to reports of the parliamentarian’s objections.
Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee were also dismissive of the setback, writing that “technical adjustments are a standard part of the budget reconciliation process.”
Merkley anticipated Republicans’ effort to rewrite the bill in his statement, saying, “While we expect Republicans to change this bill to appease Trump, Democrats are prepared to challenge any change to this bill.”
The East Wing funding is not the only portion of the bill the parliamentarian targeted.
The parliamentarian has also ruled against provisions funding Customs and Border Protection, as well as funding the screening of unaccompanied noncitizen children.
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