{"id":22558,"date":"2026-05-12T12:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trump-officials-pitch-gop-on-ballroom-funds\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:02:10","slug":"capitol-agenda-trump-officials-pitch-gop-on-ballroom-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trump-officials-pitch-gop-on-ballroom-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Trump officials pitch GOP on ballroom funds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Administration officials are trying to win Hill Republicans\u2019 blessing for $1 billion in security funding that could go towards parts<\/a> of President Donald Trump\u2019s ballroom project.<\/p>\n

Secret Service Director Sean Curran is meeting Tuesday with Senate Republicans. He\u2019ll face several senators who aren’t convinced or are outright opposed to green-lighting the money.<\/p>\n

Expect Curran and GOP leaders to pitch the funding as necessary for White House security improvements and helping the Secret Service keep up broadly with growing threats.<\/p>\n

The funds are part of a larger party-line spending package that would mainly support immigration enforcement. Trump has given lawmakers until June 1 to clear the legislation.<\/p>\n

Things aren’t looking easier over in the House, where a growing number of Republicans are complaining its inclusion sends a tone-deaf message as voters struggle with higher gas and grocery prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bad look. It\u2019s bad timing. It\u2019s bad all around,\u201d said one House Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly.<\/p>\n

Some House GOP leaders privately doubt the measure has the votes to pass, according to four people granted anonymity to describe behind-the-scenes discussions, but they\u2019re hoping it gets stripped out in the Senate first.<\/p>\n

As we scooped, conversations with the Senate parliamentarian are already under way and bipartisan meetings \u2014 known as a Byrd bath \u2014 are expected later this week. Sen. Rand Paul, who said Monday he opposed the ballroom security funding measure, predicted it\u2019s possible that provision gets stripped out during the review.<\/p>\n

Coming up next week: The Senate Homeland Security panel will vote on its portion of the party-line bill, which does not have the ballroom language in it. The Judiciary Committee, which does, postponed its planned markup \u2014 with Chair Chuck Grassley pointing to the panel\u2019s drawn out rules as the reason.<\/p>\n

The Senate Budget Committee will also need to hold a meeting next week to compile the full bill. Notably, panel member Sen. John Kennedy declined multiple times to discuss the ballroom project Monday night. The Louisiana Republican has previously tried to expand the scope of the bill beyond immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans are aiming to begin floor consideration of the bill next Wednesday to pass it and send it to the House by Friday. That timeline has House GOP leadership already discussing the likelihood they will need to remain in session for at least part of Memorial Day weekend to finish their work.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 DEMS GRASP FOR REDISTRICTING SILVER LINING:<\/b> House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries \u2014 left with few alternatives for action \u2014 is hoping voters punish<\/u><\/a> Republicans in the midterms for aggressively redrawing maps to help them hold onto the House in November. Jeffries guaranteed his party<\/u><\/a> would win control of the chamber this fall in a letter Monday, part of a flurry of statements by Democrats trying to find a silver lining to recent court blows in the parties\u2019 gerrymandering wars.<\/p>\n

\u2014 TRUMP\u2019S GAS TAX HOLIDAY FACES HEADWINDS: <\/b>Bipartisan interest in a gasoline tax holiday urged by Trump is growing on Capitol Hill, but the proposal is facing pushback<\/u><\/a> from key Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Monday he has not \u201cbeen a fan of that idea\u201d in the past, adding he\u2019d hear out colleagues who think it\u2019s a good plan as the Iran war continues to jeopardize global oil supplies.<\/p>\n

Andrew Howard, Pavan Acharya and Amelia Davidson contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Administration officials are trying to win Hill Republicans\u2019 blessing for $1 billion in security funding that could go towards parts of President Donald Trump\u2019s ballroom project. Secret Service Director Sean Curran is meeting Tuesday with Senate Republicans. He\u2019ll face several senators who aren’t convinced or are outright opposed to green-lighting the money. Expect Curran and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}