The House and Senate are back in session this week, and will be back again in Washington next week.
As the Senate returns to Washington, it will take up a reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and potentially also provide security funding for the new East Wing ballroom at the White House. Reconciliation bills are given privileged status, meaning they cannot be filibustered in the Senate.
While Republicans are unified around the need to fund ICE and CBP, the fate of the East Wing ballroom is less secure. President Trump, who has now been the subject of three assassination attempts, is plowing forward to build a new ballroom in order to more securely host important events. Stunningly, a recent survey found that 25% of liberals think that the attempts on the President’s life were fake, and some in the media are saying he is using the last attempt on his life as a way to fund “his” ballroom.
Well-known liberal commentator Bill Maher and Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania—neither of whom are known for being gracious to those on the right—recently discussed the ballroom on Maher’s podcast. Even they acknowledged that the ballroom is neither extravagant in cost, nor being built solely to protect Trump:
“This thing won’t even be finished by the time he’s done!” said Fetterman. “Meanwhile, the money is like one angstrom unit of a percentage point of what our budget is. So it doesn’t matter anyway, it’s couch money” quipped Maher.
President Trump has secured private funding for the ballroom, which the President says would cost between $200-$400 million. The issue at hand is hardening the ballroom to ensure the security measures are up to standard. This is where Congress comes into play. Congressional leadership has included $1 billion to accomplish this goal. According to sources, some lawmakers have concerns with supporting such a proposal.
The need for an upgraded ballroom facility—for both space and security reasons—is well documented. Official state dinners are routinely hosted in temporary, soft-sided tents on the South Lawn. This poses numerous challenges for the Secret Service to ensure the safety and security of the President, his family, and cabinet officials.
Even former President Obama noticed that hosting major state dinners in soft-sided tents is not fitting for the office. Noting the insufficiency of the facilities, he reportedly remarked that every time he had to hold a state dinner on the South Lawn, he had to “rent a very expensive tent.”
South Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez summed up the situation:
“Putting my doctor hat on, I will say that the validity to those lawsuits is based on Trump Derangement Syndrome. So [critics] need help, OK. The White House, which is a site of many official functions, and especially state dinners, when we’re bringing in dignitaries and heads of state from around the world, needs a ballroom.”
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