Senate Ruling Threatens Ballroom Funding in G.O.P. Budget Bill

The Republican bid to provide $1 billion for President Trump’s White House ballroom project in a filibuster-proof budget bill hit a significant roadblock on Saturday when the Senate’s top parliamentary referee ruled that the money did not qualify to be included in the measure.

In a finding announced by Senate Democrats, Elizabeth MacDonough, the nonpartisan parliamentarian, determined that the proposed $1 billion for security enhancements for the ongoing White House project ran afoul of budget reconciliation rules.

The ruling by Ms. MacDonough, the arbiter of complex Senate rules, meant that the proposal would need to be adjusted or be subject to a 60-vote threshold. That would effectively kill the funding, since Democrats are uniformly opposed.

Democrats argued that the White House project went far beyond the scope of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which included the money in its portion of the legislation. It sent Republicans back to the drawing board to figure out how to salvage the funding, which was already threatening to become a political problem for the G.O.P.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/us/politics/white-house-ballroom-senate.html