Senate Republicans Unveil $70 Billion+ Giveaway for Ballroom, ICE and CBP

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans last night unveiled their spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security which includes more than $70 billion for the lawless Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and $1 billion for Trump’s ballroom. House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) issued the following statement:

“The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress do not care about bringing down the cost of living. President Trump and Republicans’ priority is to spend billions and billions of dollars on foreign wars, Trump’s White House ballroom, and even more money for masked, armed federal agents to threaten our communities. There is more than $70 billion in the legislation Republicans unveiled last night. Not a penny of it will do anything to bring down the skyrocketing cost of gas, groceries, health care, and other everyday goods and services that Americans can no longer afford.

“Immigration agents have beaten, harassed, detained, and even killed law abiding American citizens with zero accountability. Now, instead of reforming those agencies to keep our communities safe from masked federal agents, Republicans are giving them tens of billions of dollars with no strings attached to continue threatening our communities. 

“We have been told that the president’s ballroom would be privately funded, that it would not cost taxpayers a dime. Now it turns out that actually it is going to cost taxpayers $1 billion. The legislation allows the $1 billion to be spent on ‘security adjustments and upgrades’ for the East Wing Modernization Project. The National Capital Planning Commission, which Trump corruptly took over last year and oversees the project, refers to East Wing Modernization as ‘a permanent, secure event space,’ which means the entire ballroom could be interpreted as a security adjustment.

“Republicans have been lying to the public about the cost of this ballroom for over a year. It has always been about taking taxpayer money to build a lavish venue for billionaire mega-donors to rub elbows with the Trump officials they have bought and paid for. 

“Democrats will not support a single taxpayer dollar for the ballroom vanity project, nor will we support any funding for ICE or Border Patrol without reining in these out-of-control agencies.”

The bill includes $38.2 billion for ICE; $26 billion for CBP; a $5 billion slush fund for the Secretary of Homeland Security; $1.5 billion for several Justice Department bureaus; and $1 billion to the Secret Service specifically for President Trump’s ballroom. For reference, the entire Secret Service budget for fiscal year 2026 is $3.3 billion. 

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