GOP plan to help pay for White House ballroom dealt big blow

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Published  May 17, 2026 12:25pm PDT
FOX Local

Construction on the proposed White House ballroom, at the site of the former East Wing, on Wednesday, May 13, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Al Drago for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The Brief

    • Senate parliamentarian rules that a security proposal for the White House campus and the proposed ballroom cannot be included in a GOP budget bill.
    • The budget bill cannot be filibustered and only requires a simple majority to pass the Senate.
    • The $72 billion immigration enforcement funding bill is designed to provide money to certain agencies for the rest of Trump’s term.

A proposed billion-dollar plan to increase security at the White House campus and help pay for President Donald Trump’s proposed ballroom suffered a major setback by failing to meet the criteria to be included in the upcoming Republican budget bill.

Big picture view:

The budget plan cannot be filibustered and only needs a simple majority to pass, so including the new security projects would have been a much easier lift to get through the Senate. Now, those sections would need 60 votes for approval.

The backstory:

Republicans hoped to include the security additions for the White House campus and the Trump administration’s ballroom plan in their bill to pay for immigration enforcement agencies for the next three years. However, the Senate parliamentarian ruled a project as large as the ballroom is too broad to be included in a budget proposal.

RELATED: Trump says White House ballroom construction ahead of schedule; here’s when it will be completed

The GOP immigration bill

The Republican-backed immigration enforcement budget bill would cost approximately $72 billion and is designed to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection for the rest of Trump’s term. The effort comes after Democrats stymied money to help fund the agencies.

The bill included approximately one billion dollars for security enhancements requested by the Secret Service after a man was charged with trying to assassinate Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner last month. Shortly after the incident, the president asserted the ballroom was vital to help protect him and his successors. 

Dig deeper:

Beyond nixing the security enhancement determination, the Senate parliamentarian left most of the rest of the bill intact. Some of the minor components that were blocked included allowing Customs and Border Protection funds to be used to hire, train, and pay Border Patrol agents.

A parliamentarian’s ruling is advisory but rarely ignored as lawmakers assemble bills that are allowed to pass with simple majorities.

The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Associated Press. This story was reported from Orlando.

PoliticsU.S.