Fears that push for ballroom spending could jeopardize $70bn funding for immigration enforcement

Fears that push for ballroom spending could jeopardize $70bn funding for immigration enforcement

Senate Republicans on Wednesday formally dropped their attempt to spend $1bn on security improvements for Donald Trump’s White House ballroom, as it became clear the president’s demand for the money could jeopardize long-term funding for immigration enforcement.

The Senate judiciary committee had last month included funding for security improvements related to the new ballroom in a broader measure that would authorize $70bn in spending for agencies involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign through the duration of his term.

On Wednesday, the committee released a revised text that no longer mentioned the money, which was included in legislation dubbed the Secure America Act that advanced on a party-line vote of 53-46 later that afternoon.

  • unitedwithme@lemmy.today
    0·
    3 days ago

    1bn??? Dude, I’ll bump up security for 0.0001% of that!! They’re security improvements, like PIR/motion sensors, temp, proximity, visual+thermal cameras, etc. It’s not that expansive, but I feel they keep normalizing all this spending and in perspective “it’s not that bad”… Smh

    • turtlesareneat@piefed.caEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      Well, no, they’re talking world class 8-story bunker and hospital and god knows what else under a bullshit ballroom that’s supposedly now under a drone launchpad for all of DC… I mean none of this is actually going to get built, but they definitely have things to boondoggle and tinker with until someone sane comes along.