Overview
- The Senate’s rules referee, Elizabeth MacDonough, told lawmakers Saturday that $1 billion in White House and Secret Service security money tied to President Trump’s planned East Wing ballroom cannot be included in the fast‑track budget bill as written and would face a 60‑vote hurdle.
- Under the Senate’s Byrd Rule, reconciliation bills must stick to items that directly change spending or revenue within the assigned committees, and MacDonough said the ballroom‑linked provision strays across committee jurisdictions.
- Republican leaders said they will try to revise the language to meet the rules, with a spokesman for Majority Leader John Thune calling the next steps a standard “redraft, refine, resubmit” process.
- The White House and Secret Service outlined that roughly $220 million of the $1 billion request would harden the East Wing and ballroom, with the rest funding a new visitor screening center, agent training and broader security upgrades, even as Trump has said the $400 million ballroom itself would rely on private donors.
- The funding push lands alongside courtroom battles over the East Wing demolition, where DOJ urged judges to lift limits after April’s attack at the Correspondents’ Dinner and detailed planned defenses such as blast‑resistant glass, while an appeals court has allowed construction to continue during the preservation lawsuit.