Schumer: Democrats will make stand against $1 billion White House ballroom
by Alexander Bolton - 05/11/26 5:00 AM ET
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is rallying fellow Democrats in a new “Dear Colleague” letter for a battle royale on the Senate floor over $1 billion in proposed funding for President Trump’s 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom that’s tucked into a $72 billion Republican-drafted budget reconciliation package.
Schumer is planning to turn the Senate floor debate and marathon voting session on the reconciliation bill into a referendum on lowering costs and scrapping the earmark for the ballroom.
“At a time when Americans can’t make ends meet, Republicans say ‘Let them eat cake’ — and then hand Trump a billion dollars to build a ballroom to serve it in,” Schumer wrote in his letter to Senate Democrats on Sunday.
“Americans do not need a ballroom. They need relief. They want their Congress and their President to address the growing cost crisis bearing down on families across the country,” he wrote.
The Republican bill, which was drafted by the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol through 2029 — circumventing the Democratic blockade of funding for those two agencies spurred by the fatal shooting of two anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis.
The bill also provides $1.46 billion for the Department of Justice’s national security division, Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
And it provides $1 billion to support security enhancements to Trump’s ballroom project.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5871949-schumer-rally-democrats-trump-ballroom/
