Tillis threatens – Sen. Thom Tillis says he will block Republicans’ $72 billion reconciliation package for ICE and Border Patrol if it includes $1 billion for President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom security, risking a narrow Senate push at a moment when the Senate Parliam
The Senate’s effort to move a sweeping immigration funding plan is colliding with a fight over a single, highly specific number: $1 billion.
Sen.. Thom Tillis. R-N.C.. told his GOP colleagues that he would not support the party’s $72 billion budget reconciliation package if it included $1 billion in funding for President Donald Trump’s ballroom.. With Republicans holding a narrow margin in the upper chamber. the threat matters—Senate Majority Leader John Thune. R-S.D.. cannot afford additional defections from his side.
Tillis’ stance. first reported by Axios and later confirmed by a source familiar to Fox News Digital. is not the only internal resistance.. But even if his opposition alone wouldn’t necessarily sink the bill meant to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the next three and a half years. it adds pressure at the exact moment Senate leaders are trying to keep the package alive.
Other Republicans raised concerns as well, including Sens.. John Curtis, R-Utah, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rick Scott, R-Fla.. The package was briefed to Republicans last week by Secret Service Director Sean Curran. with part of the funding earmarked for “White House complex hardening.”
That figure—$220 million—would pay for “above and below ground” security enhancements for Trump’s ballroom.. The administration’s rationale is that the improvements would “afford needed protection for the president. his family. and visitors. ” while also supporting “the below-ground. highest-level security functions.” The requested upgrades include bulletproof glass. drone detection technology. chemical filtration and detection systems. and “a host of other national security functions.”
An additional $180 million is slated for a White House screening center for visitors. The remaining $600 million would go toward Secret Service training, enhancing protection for Trump and other officials, and other security measures—including countering drones and other aerial incursions.
For Republicans trying to keep the reconciliation package moving, the most immediate opening may come from the Senate Parliamentarian’s ruling—because it already narrowed what lawmakers can include.
Budget reconciliation is designed to pause the 60-vote threshold and pass under a simple majority only if provisions comply with the Senate’s strict Byrd Rule. Senate Democrats pushed for the ballroom funding to be stripped out, and the parliamentarian sided with them.
Over the weekend. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that. given the complexity and scale of the ballroom project. it would require coordination among “many government agencies which span the jurisdiction of many Senate committees.” As drafted. she said the provision “inappropriately funds activities outside the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee.”
Thune argued that Republicans have learned from the parliamentarian’s rulings during last year’s “big, beautiful bill,” characterizing the process as “a give-and-take.” Still, the GOP is pressing forward with the goal of advancing the package by the end of the week.
“We cannot let Republicans waste our national treasure on a mission of chaos and corruption while turning a blind eye to the needs of the American people,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said after praising the ruling.
Thune. for his part. signaled momentum rather than restraint. telling colleagues that if the bill can be finalized. lawmakers should do it quickly.. He said. “I think that if we can get it done. we should get it done. ” adding that Republicans want to “strike while the iron’s hot.” He pointed to committee action. “decent attendance. ” and what he described as a “good place” with the parliamentarian.
The sequence now feels like a high-stakes balancing act: a reconciliation package built to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three and a half years. but vulnerable to internal fractures over how much money goes to Trump’s ballroom security—and whether lawmakers can reshuffle the package enough to keep it within Senate rules.. The bill may still move. but the fight over one dollar figure is already shaping whether Republicans can keep their own coalition intact.
Thom Tillis John Thune budget reconciliation ICE Border Patrol Byrd Rule Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough White House complex hardening Secret Service Director Sean Curran Trump ballroom security $72 billion package