Demolition work continued on the site of the East Wing in Washington, D.C. on December 8, 2025. On December 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump ordered the razing of the 123-year-old East Wing and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden to make way for a up-to-date 90,000-square-foot ballroom that he said would cost about $300 million and be paid for by private donations. The U.S. Senate Republican bill released on May 4, 2026 calls for $1 billion in taxpayer funds to secure the project. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Republicans released a roughly $70 billion spending package Monday night that will keep Immigration, Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol operating for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term without any up-to-date restrictions demanded by Democrats.
The legislation also includes $1 billion “to support U.S. Secret Service improvements related to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and underground security.”
Trump, who had the east wing of the White House razed to the ground to make way for his $300 or $400 million ballroom project, he said it would be financed by private donors, not taxpayers. White House officials they said the ballroom is critical to national security as top officials gather following the April 25 incident the gunman opened fire at a dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel with Trump.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that the panel “is taking action to provide certainty for federal law enforcement and safer streets for American families.”
“We will work to ensure that this crucial financing is implemented without unnecessary delay,” he added.
Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Merkley, R-Ore., said in a statement that the package shows that “Republicans are ignoring the needs of America’s middle class and are instead funneling money to Trump’s ballroom and throwing billions at two lawless agencies.”
He noted that the Department of Homeland Security has more than $100 billion in the Republican-signed tax and spending cut package that it has not spent.
“Throughout this process, Democrats will continue to show Americans that we stand for lowering costs, making progress easier and building an economy where families thrive and billionaires pay their fair share,” Merkley said. “It is clear that the country is fed up with the Republican agenda of ‘families lose, billionaires win.’
Billions for immigration enforcement
The package’s release follows a record-breaking work stoppage at the Department of Homeland Security that began after the two sides failed to compromise on up-to-date protective barriers to immigration operations after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.
Committee on the Judiciary Bill includes $30.725 billion for ICE, $3.47 billion for Customs and Border Protection, and $1.457 billion for the Department of Justice.
The Bill The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs appropriates $19.1 billion for CBP to hire Border Patrol personnel and $7.45 billion for ICE to hire Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents.
The CPB will receive an additional $3.45 billion to purchase up-to-date technology “to combat the entry and exit of illicit drugs at ports of entry,” upgrade border surveillance technology and conduct pre-screening of unaccompanied children.
Another $2.5 billion will go to the Secretary of Homeland Security for any additional border security needs.
All financing will last until September 30, 2029.
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a statement that the panel plans to vote on the bill later this month.
“Senate Democrats refuse to vote on one dollar to secure our borders or enforce our immigration laws, even against the most violent illegal aliens,” Paul said.
You don’t need 60 votes in the Senate
Republicans plan to pass a bill using the same elaborate budget reconciliation process they used last year to pass the “big, beautiful” bill that provided $170 billion for DHS.
GOP lawmakers I voted last month to approve a budget resolution that opens a process that involves many rules and restrictions but avoids the need for 60 votes in the Senate to end debate.
Senate Republican leaders decided to separate ICE and Border Patrol funding from the annual homeland security appropriations bill after both political parties made little progress toward implementing restrictions on immigration agents.
The impasse led to a 76-day suspension of the Department of Homeland Security, which ended at the end of April after the House sent Trump an annual funding bill that the Senate had approved a month earlier.
