It’s a funny word, “reconciliation.” In any other situation, it would mean restoring peace and harmony.
In Congress, the process means anything but. Yet, here we are, back on the precipice of another budget battle — the second after the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill last year. And if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has anything to do with it, this showdown will be as bruising as ever.
After a brief hiatus from Washington, Senate Republicans dropped their much-anticipated reconciliation draft last week, a $72 billion solution to Democrats’ months-long shutdown of Homeland Security. While the two sides finally agreed to fund DHS, its immigration arms — ICE and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol (CBP) — were stripped from the deal to get Schumer’s party on board. The tradeoff for reopening and paying employees of TSA, the Coast Guard, cybersecurity offices, FEMA, and Secret Service was pivoting to a bill that Republicans knew they’d have to pass without Democrats. Reconciliation — the strict, tedious, budgetary tool that only requires a simple majority — is the only way to make sure ICE and CBP have the money they need to keep functioning.
Although the national furor over ICE has died down since Tom Homan took over the president’s deportation operations, Democrats still refuse to send a single cent to the agencies enforcing America’s immigration laws. In fact, Schumer doubled down on his party’s objections of late, vowing to throw every possible wrench into the reconciliation debate. In a letter to his caucus, the minority leader claimed the bill sends billions of dollars to “rogue” immigration officers without any reforms.
“Let me make one thing very clear: Senate Democrats will not let them jam through this bill without making them answer for their endless cost hikes, healthcare cuts and every dollar diverted from American families to Trump’s priorities,” he wrote, adding that they would use “every tool we have” to gum up the process.
Of course, the Democrats’ most effective messaging takes aim at the president’s White House Ballroom project, which has been expanded to harden the property against security threats after the third assassination attempt against Trump last month. “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 ranted. “Americans do not need a ballroom. They need relief. They want Congress and their president to address the growing cost crisis bearing down on families across the country.”
Not one to let the facts get in the way of a good soundbite, Schumer ignores the reality that the $1 billion is not, in fact, just for the ballroom but for Secret Service training, facility upgrades, event protection, and additional screening capabilities. As the Judiciary Committee’s GOP majority fired back, “Serious legislating requires basic reading. The bill funds Secret Service enhancements, not ballroom construction.” Unfortunately, the media, always eager to amplify the Left’s messaging, continues to leave out the key detail that the reconciliation bill “explicitly prohibits” taxpayer dollars from financing the ballroom itself.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Secret Service Director Sean Curran reiterated that in a letter last week, noting that the new request was for “above and below ground requirements” at the East Wing site. “Importantly, as the legislative text makes explicit, none of these funds will be used to support non-security improvements at the White House,” the duo underscored.
Only $220 million of it would be for the ballroom — and every penny of it would be for security upgrades. As the president promised when he embarked on the rebuild, “The ballroom is being financed privately,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) stressed, “but the security associated with it represents about 20% of what this request was.” According to The Washington Times, the full $1 billion request breaks down this way:
“$220 million for security features of the East Wing project.
$180 million for a new White House visitor screening facility.
$175 million for training Secret Service agents “in the modern threat environment,” including updating the agency’s training facilities.
$175 million to improve security for Secret Service protectees, including at “frequently visited venues facing heightened risk due to their public visibility and static nature.”
$150 million for the Secret Service Special Operations Division to invest in state-of-the-art technologies to counter drones, airspace incursions, unmanned systems and biological threats.
$100 million for increased security at high-profile national events that require significant planning, specialized training and extra assets.”
It’s not exactly “choosing Trump’s chandelier over your child care,” as Schumer so carelessly suggests. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to cut, GOP senators say. After the Republicans’ weekly lunch, where this was discussed, several conservatives emphasized the need to keep costs down. “I want the president to be safe. I don’t care who the president is,” Florida Senator Rick Scott (R) told the Times. “But our job is oversight.” Others, like Senator John Curtis (R-Utah) wanted to see more data, “if it’s really for extra security.” And Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) highlighted the need to offset the $1 billion elsewhere in the bill.
In the meantime, Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Tuesday’s “Washington Watch,” “[I]t’s been interesting just to be able to watch this process. … Obviously, the president has had a third assassination attempt on him in the past two years. So he is attentive to what’s happening with Secret Service. And Secret Service came back and said, ‘We’d like $1 billion.’ And it’s been portrayed by Chuck Schumer as $1 billion for the ballroom. It’s not,” he declared. “[These are] training facilities. [These are] additional access points in and out of the White House. [These are] additional electronic security measures around the White House.”
That said, Lankford continued, a lot of Republicans have questions. Pointing to the president’s June 1 deadline for reconciliation, the Oklahoman admitted, “The clock is our enemy at this point. [There are] a lot of requests for additional information. We even met with the director of [the] Secret Service earlier today saying, ‘Hey, you’re giving us a breakdown, but we’ve got big headings. We need more information about what’s in the subheadings on all these different aspects on it.’ So we’re trying to get all that additional paperwork in from them. At the same time,” he noted, “we’re trying to be able to work through funding ICE and CBP for the next three years. We don’t want to get into a government shutdown again over ICE and CBP.” It’s a monumental task.
Asked if the GOP would stick together on this, Lankford half-laughed. “Do all the Republicans stick together on anything? Mom and apple pie [are things] we have disagreements on at times. … So I think the vast majority do. I think there [are] a lot of questions still in this new billion-dollar request. Again, it’s being portrayed as just the ballroom. It’s not just the ballroom.” But, he added, “Just to be able to walk through [the details is important]. All of us want to make sure that the president is secure, no doubt about that.
Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.
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