Republicans returning to Washington on Monday (May 11, 2026) are facing questions about a $1 billion Senate security proposal that could help pay for U.S. President Donald Trump’s ballroom as Democrats say they will try to defeat it.
Senate Republicans added the money for White House security to a spending bill that would restore funding for immigration enforcement agencies that Democrats have blocked since February. The steep security proposal was put forward after a man was charged with trying to assassinate Mr. Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month.
Trump makes a fresh case for White House ballroom after shooting incident at dinner event
Republicans are using a partisan budget manoeuvre to push the spending legislation through Congress without any Democratic votes. But in a letter to colleagues Monday (May 11, 2026) morning, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will fight it in other ways, including by pushing the Senate parliamentarian to strike the ballroom security money from the budget bill and offering amendments forcing Republicans to vote on it.
“The Republican-controlled Congress is preparing to answer this moment with a deficit-busting, party-line bill that pours billions more taxpayer dollars into a rogue ICE operation and a billion-dollar ballroom, while doing nothing to end the illegal war in Iran or ease the Republican affordability crisis bearing down on working families,” Mr. Schumer wrote in the letter.
