Congress

Trump ballroom project security funding included in $72B GOP enforcement bill

Published

6 months ago

May 5, 2026

Senate Republicans are including funding for Secret Service security upgrades related to President Donald Trump’s ballroom project as part of a nearly $72 billion package that would shovel cash to immigration enforcement agencies.

The package includes $1 billion in Secret Service funding for “security adjustments and upgrades” including at the White House. This is on top of the almost $3.3 billion the agency received already under the fiscal 2026 DHS funding bill signed into law Thursday.

The White House touted the security funding’s inclusion Tuesday, which it views as Congress approving a project that is currently mired in litigation. A federal judge ruled last month legislators had not properly authorized the project.

“The White House applauds Congress’s latest proposal in its reconciliation package which includes additional funding for security infrastructure upgrades in relation to the long overdue East Wing Modernization Project,” spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement. “Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds.”

The fund could be used for Secret Service “enhancements” related to the East Wing project, “including above-ground and below-ground security features.” The bill released by the Senate Judiciary Committee stipulates the funds cannot be used for nonsecurity aspects of the project.

All of the funds doled out in the package would remain available through Sept. 30, 2029 — past the end of Trump’s term.

Clare Slattery, a spokesperson for Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said that the bill “does not fund ballroom construction” but “provides funds for Secret Service enhancements that will ensure all presidents, their families and their staffs are adequately protected.”

Two other congressional aides, granted anonymity to speak candidly, also said the legislation does not provide congressional authorization for the larger ballroom construction because the funds are limited to Secret Service security upgrades.

But the Trump administration and its political allies have argued in the wake of the shooting late last month at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that the East Wing renovation is necessary for security. Trump has personally pointed to the security features the ballroom would have, including thick bulletproof glass, and administration lawyers argued in court that security concerns justified continuing with the project.

“I’m building a safe ballroom, and one of the reasons I’m building it is exactly what happened last night,” he said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” the day after the shooting.

Ingle, in his statement Tuesday, said the “the proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”

The $1 billion fund is part of a party-line package Republicans are aiming to clear for Trump’s signature by month’s end. It is more than double the $400 million Trump has estimated for the ballroom project, which he has said will be privately financed.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has offered a separate bill to fund the project, told reporters late last month that he envisioned a bunker underneath the ballroom for Secret Service and other national security needs.

Democrats quickly seized on the Secret Service provision and hinted they will force a vote on the Senate floor later this month when Republicans try to pass the overall package.

“Just flagging that now everyone gets an up or down vote on the ballroom!” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote on X.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer added that “Republicans looked at families drowning in bills and decided what they really needed was more raids and a Trump ballroom.”

The bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee would total nearly $40 billion, including more than $30 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with smaller amounts for Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security secretary’s office and the Justice Department.

The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel also released a bill outlining more than $32.5 billion in spending for immigration enforcement — most of it for CBP agencies, including Border Patrol.

Republicans want to bring the immigration enforcement funding package to the floor the week of May 18. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said in a statement he planned to hold a vote on the panel’s bill later in May.

In addition to trying to squeeze Republicans over the East Wing project, Democrats are planning to comb through the legislation for any procedural defects they can exploit. To skirt the chamber’s 60-vote filibuster, a reconciliation bill has to comply with strict guidelines known as the Byrd rule.

“Senate Democrats are prepared to review this bill line by line and vigorously challenge any provision that violates the Byrd Rule,” said Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee.

“At a time when gas prices are rising every day due to Trump’s war of choice with Iran and families continue to struggle to buy groceries, Republicans are ignoring the needs of middle-class America and instead funneling money into Trump’s ballroom and throwing billions at two lawless agencies — agencies that are already sitting on over $100 billion in unspent funds,” he added.

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Kevin McCarthy predicts GOP will lose House majority

Published

4 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Republicans will lose the House in two weeks, citing historical midterm trends while also criticizing the sitting GOP leadership for how they’ve managed the chamber.

“In the last 100 years, all off-year elections, whoever is the party in power has the White House, has lost seats, and it’s only a few seats for the majority,” McCarthy said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Thursday.

Democrats, he added, will “get a majority” in the House: “I’m not quite sure how big it is, but they will probably win the majority.”

The former speaker, who ushered in the current GOP House majority in 2022 but only led the conference for less than a year before being booted from the speakership, went on to fault his own party for giving the election away.

“It’s not that the Democrats are going to win this election,” he said. “Republicans are going to lose it.”

He pointed to the skimpy House legislative calendar as a factor. Speaker Mike Johnson and his deputies have routinely canceled scheduled session days amid member revolts that have undermined his grip on the razor-thin majority.

“You’re only given 24 months in a majority to manage it. They were in the fewest amount of days. They let the Democrats dictate,” McCarthy said. “You have to give a reason why to win. What are the three things Republicans will do if they win the majority? I can’t tell you what that is.”

Still, McCarthy cautioned that if Democrats win the House, it won’t be because they have laid out their own agenda and warned that he believes that Democrats will face their own hurdles.

“Democrats are not popular. They haven’t laid out an agenda on what they’ll do,” McCarthy said. “So they’ll have a really hard time governing in the next Congress.”

Congress

GOP senator questions Elon Musk’s influence over military assets

Published

6 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said Thursday that he had concerns about Elon Musk’s influence over national security matters after Ukraine was blindsided by a disruption of a satellite communications service developed by Musk’s SpaceX.

“We’re putting too many eggs in one company’s basket when it comes to our space assets,” the Republican member of the Armed Services Committee said. He added about Musk that he was concerned about the power of “one individual and one company over America’s ability to protect the domain of space, which is a war-fighting domain.”

Cramer received a briefing Thursday from Air Force Secretary Troy Meink that he said focused on getting an update on Starshield — a military product based on SpaceX’s Starlink technology. Cramer told reporters before the briefing that he wanted Congress and the Pentagon to “pour a lot of resources … into making sure there’s lots of competition both for satellite production and satellite launch.” “I’m uncomfortable with the potential vendor lock in space, and I think the events of the last couple of weeks have demonstrated greater concern, even than just simply cost,” Cramer said.

Musk has been under days of scrutiny — including fresh pledges by Democrats to investigate him next year — after the Wall Street Journal reported that he ordered the recent slowdown in Starshield capabilities over the Russia-Ukraine war theater.

Cramer, asked about the Journal reporting after the closed-door briefing, said that he wasn’t sure if Musk ordered the slowdown and that the “culpability of multiple people … was left somewhat loose.”

“By that I mean, discussions with the president before, discussions with the president after. … Obviously I don’t think it could have possibly happened without Elon Musk’s knowledge, whether or not you know how supportive he was one way or the other,” Cramer said.

Cramer added that he believed there could have been a broad misunderstanding within the U.S. government and within SpaceX about how reliant Ukraine was on the satellite technology. But he said it was incumbent that the operation of satellite technology like Starshield must “be exclusively with the authority of the United States government.”

“There are certain things the government has to do that can’t be so dependent on others,” Cramer said. “And fighting wars is one of those things.”

Congress

Top Senate Finance Democrat maps out clean energy plan

Published

9 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee wants to revive a clean energy tax credit program he argues was a booming success — and says he has the receipts to prove it.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon is releasing a new report of IRS data, shared first with Blue Light News, showing that, in the first two years of the Democrats’ 2022 climate law, nearly $2.5 billion in direct payments went directly to schools and other tax-exempt entities to cover electric school buses, rooftop solar, electric vehicles and more.

Wyden said in a press release the numbers prove there is “massive demand” for “any and all” programs that lower energy costs and rebuild aging infrastructure, after Republicans gutted many of these wind and solar tax credits in their tax and spending megalaw last summer.

“When Democrats have a trifecta of power, reinstating the wind and solar tax credits and bolstering the Direct Pay Program will be a top priority to help bring an end to Trump’s energy crisis,” said Wyden, who is poised to take back the Finance gavel if control of the Senate flips in the midterms.

The report, prepared by Democratic staff for the committee, argues the current “energy crisis,” where Americans’ utility bills are rising, was manufactured by Republicans and the direct result of the Trump administration’s clean energy incentive rollbacks.

Wyden said he would revive the solar and wind tax credits if given the chance to chair the Finance Committee again, plus boost what’s known as the Direct Pay Program, which schools and tax exempt entities can use on rooftop solar, electric vehicle purchases, heat pumps and more.

“If we’re back in the majority — and I think we will — I will be introducing that bill [to restore] the clean energy tax credits that had billions of dollars in the market in the first couple of years,” Wyden said in an interview last month regarding his plans. “I’ll be introducing that right away.”

Wyden, who has led his party on the Finance Committee since 2015, wrote the bulk of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s climate and clean energy provisions.