Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa (via Missouri Independent)<\/p>\n
Speaker Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt\/States Newsroom)WASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday pressed for increased funding for the Secret Service, arguing most of the money Senate Republicans included for the agency in their immigration enforcement bill is for security needs, not building a new ballroom at the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the Louisiana Republican added during a morning press conference he didn\u2019t want to \u201cprejudge\u201d the $72 billion package before the Senate approves a final version this month and sends it to the House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have the pen in the Senate. They\u2019re writing the bill,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what we get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson noted there are several more steps the legislation must go through in the Senate, including a review by the parliamentarian to make sure all of the provisions fit within the strict rules of\u00a0the reconciliation process, committee debate and a marathon amendment voting session on the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson said that President Donald Trump \u201cis excited about building a ballroom with private funding,\u201d though that project comes with some additional needs that will likely require taxpayer dollars.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Secret Service says that as we enhance the White House grounds and the modernization there that obviously we have to think differently about security,\u201d he said. \u201cWe live in a very dangerous time and there are new and increasing threats that we have never faced before. And so Congress has a role in funding that and we\u2019ll have to see how it all works out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Urgent request\u2019<\/p>\n
Johnson asserted the bill Senate Republicans\u00a0released last week \u201cvery specifically defined\u201d how the Secret Service could use the additional funding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0legislation would provide $1 billion that would be available until Sept. 30, 2029 for \u201csecurity adjustments and upgrades \u2026 to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to\u00a0the East Wing Modernization Project.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill would limit the Secret Service from using any of the funding \u201cfor non-security elements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson said GOP lawmakers added the funding to the immigration enforcement spending bill after the Secret Service \u201cput in an urgent request for additional security measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve needed some of these security measures for a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what this is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congress provided the Secret Service with $3.25 billion in the annual funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security that lawmakers\u00a0passed in late April.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Republicans approved an additional $1.17 billion for the Secret Service in their \u201cbig, beautiful\u201d law that the agency can use through September 2029 for personnel, training, technology as well as performance, retention and signing bonuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Normally, the White House budget office would publicly send Congress a supplemental spending request, asking lawmakers to approve the additional money. That would then be vetted by the Appropriations Committees, though that didn\u2019t happen in this case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Trump administration also could have included a boost in funding to\u00a0the budget request officials sent Congress in early April that asked members to approve $3.5 billion for the Secret Service in the annual funding bill for the agency that\u2019s due by the end of September.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Funding breakdown<\/p>\n
Secret Service Director Sean Curran gave Republican senators more details about how the agency plans to use the additional funding during a closed-door lunch this week, though the bill wouldn\u2019t actually require the agency to spend the money as outlined.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A breakdown obtained by States Newsroom showed:\u00a0<\/p>\n
$220 million would go to \u201chardening\u201d the East Wing Modernization Project with additional bulletproof glass, drone detection technologies and filtration systems designed to detect chemical or other contaminants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
$180 million would go toward construction of a \u201clong overdue\u201d White House visitor screening facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
$175 million would bolster Secret Service training as well as its training facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
$175 million would help the agency \u201csecure frequently visited venues facing heightened risk due to their public visibility and static nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
$150 million would go to the branch of the Secret Service that focuses on drones, aircraft incursions, biological threats and \u201cother emerging threats through investments in state-of-the-art technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
$100 million for \u201chigh-profile national events that require significant planning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican senators said after that meeting they\u00a0wanted more information from the Secret Service on exactly how the agency would spend the additional funding before they vote on the package.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thune predicts passage next week<\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday morning most GOP senators will ultimately support the additional funding for the Secret Service \u201cthat\u2019s needed to enable them to do their jobs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously there are security implications related to the modernization of the East Wing. And that represents, I think, of the total request that Secret Service made, about 20%,\u201d he said. \u201cThe balance of it, I think, are things that they\u2019ve been putting off for a long time, but need to be done, especially in a modern threat environment where you\u2019ve had, you know, now, three assassination attempts in the last two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thune said his \u201caspirational timeline\u201d is to have committees debate their bills early next week, followed by floor action on the full package later in the week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can always be affected by other factors,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think at least right now, that\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a floor speech that Trump\u2019s focus on building a \u201cgilded ballroom\u201d shows the president \u201cis living in the theater of the absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schumer said Americans don\u2019t want to see government leaders focused on the ballroom project when inflation, food costs and gasoline prices have all increased.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say Trump has completely lost touch with the American people, but that would assume that Trump was ever in touch with the American people to begin with,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd on this issue he sure as heck isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa (via Missouri Independent) Speaker Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference on Wednesday, Jan.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[18941,478],"class_list":{"0":"post-70511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mike-johnson","8":"tag-dc-bureau","9":"tag-mike-johnson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116571345036170823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}