Republican senators say they need more detail on $1B White House
security request
[May 13, 2026]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators left a meeting with the director
of the U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday saying they need more details on a
$1 billion security plan for the White House, including a proposed $220
million to secure President Donald Trump’s new East Wing ballroom.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran attended the closed-door party lunch
and talked through the request as a number of Republicans have
questioned it in recent days. According to a handout he gave to senators
obtained by The Associated Press, the $220 million would go to harden
the ballroom addition, including “bulletproof glass, drone detection
technologies, chemical and other threat filtration and detection systems
and a host of other national security functions.”
The rest of the money would go for other security improvements,
according to the document, including $180 million for a new, “long
overdue” White House visitors screening facility and $175 million for
“investments to train USSS agents in the modern threat environment.”
The Secret Service request comes after a man was charged with trying to
assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents Association dinner
last month. Trump has said repeatedly that the ballroom construction
would be paid for with $400 million in private funds, but the White
House hadn’t previously disclosed the budget for security costs.
Republican senators have said they are supportive of a boost in security
for the president, but several said that Curran's breakdown was too
vague — and they want to know more about how the money would be spent.
“I want more information,” said Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a close ally of
the president. “I ran companies, okay? If somebody came to me and said
they were going to spend a billion dollars on something, I’d get more
detail.”
GOP pushback could endanger immigration enforcement funding
Republicans have added the security money to a partisan spending bill
that would restore funding for immigration enforcement agencies after
Democrats have blocked that funding since February. But questions within
the party about the White House funding proposal could jeopardize the
legislation, which GOP leaders are trying to pass without Democratic
votes.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine,
questioned why all of the security improvements weren’t in Trump’s
budget released by the White House earlier this year. She said she asked
for “a lot more data" in the meeting.
Indiana Sen. Todd Young said he could be supportive of "a certain
measure of ballroom funding, which I think is defensible, but they need
to go back and get us more detail about how exactly they arrived at the
figures.”
The information provided to the senators was “broad categories,” Young
said.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., said
Monday, ahead of the meeting, that he believes the funding should be
private. “That’s still my preference,” Paul said, adding that Congress
had also increased the Secret Service budget after another attempted
assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024
campaign.
“Was it spent wisely? Do they really need more at this time?” Paul
asked.
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Secret Service cites 'evolving threats' in funding request
Beyond the White House improvements, the Secret Service said it is
requesting $175 million for “enhancements for protectee security,”
$150 million for “evolving threats and technology,” including
countering drones and airspace incursions, and $100 million for
security at high-profile “events of national significance.”
The budget bill introduced by Republicans last week has far less
detail. It would designate the money for Secret Service “security
adjustments and upgrades” related to the ballroom project,
“including above-ground and below-ground security features." But it
specifies that the money may not be used for non-security elements.
The White House has said in court documents that the East Wing
project would be “heavily fortified,” including bomb shelters,
military installations and a medical facility underneath the
ballroom.
Democrats push back
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will push the
Senate parliamentarian to strike the security money from the bill.
Under the rules for budget reconciliation, the complicated process
that Republicans are using to pass the immigration enforcement
money, the parliamentarian must review the text and can rule certain
provisions in or out.
“Americans want lower costs, not a gold-plated ballroom for our
billionaire president,” Schumer said.
If the security money stays in the bill, Democrats plan to offer
amendments on the Senate floor that force Republicans to vote on it.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, said that she will offer two amendments
to redirect the $1 billion to money for a criminal justice program
or law enforcement officers' benefits.
There are also concerns about the money in the House, where
Republicans have not introduced their own version of the bill. House
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also attended the GOP lunch on Tuesday.
“We're waiting on the Senate product,” Johnson told reporters later
in the day when asked if the security funding was proving to be a
hard sell with House Republicans. “They're working through all that,
and then we'll see what bill we get."
If doubts about the proposal persist, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of
South Dakota suggested the security plan could potentially be pared
down, punting some of the request to future annual spending bills.
Still, Rounds said it’s possible Republicans will approve the entire
request once they have more details, so it gets done quickly.
“I think as more of the information begins to come out, I think
people are going to feel a lot more comfortable with what they are
requesting,” Rounds said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has backed the legislation,
arguing that the Senate should pass it now, “given the obstruction
that the Democrats have posed and their unwillingness to fund law
enforcement.”
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