Trump Defends White House Ballroom After Senate Strips $1 Billion in Secret Service Funds
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · May 19
Trump Defends White House Ballroom After Senate Strips $1 Billion in Secret Service Funds
8 articles · Updated · POLITICO · May 19
$1 billion in related Secret Service funding was removed from a Senate Republican bill, prompting Trump to publicly defend the White House ballroom from the construction site.
Trump said the ballroom itself would be paid for entirely by him and private donors, while Congress was being asked only for security funding; the administration had estimated about $220 million could support the project.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, struck the entire Secret Service provision after ruling it violated reconciliation rules because some funding fell outside the Judiciary Committee's jurisdiction.
The ruling complicates Republicans' effort to pass the money without Democratic votes and intensifies scrutiny of a project Trump has also pitched as serving military and research functions.
As construction continues under a temporary stay, will courts permanently halt the controversial White House expansion?
Can national security justify bypassing preservation laws to alter the historic White House?