{"id":384,"date":"2026-06-23T23:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T23:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=384"},"modified":"2026-06-23T23:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T23:44:09","slug":"democrats-seek-probe-of-secret-service-disbursements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=384","title":{"rendered":"Democrats seek probe of Secret Service disbursements"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Top Democratic appropriators are calling on the Government Accountability Office to probe the Trump administration\u2019s release of nearly $400 million of taxpayer funds for a White House East Wing modernization project that includes a ballroom.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=382\">Days into his new job, Pulte raises eyebrows in Senate<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who is the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, requested an investigation in a letter to acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown.<\/p>\n<p>They pointed to the recent apportionments of nearly $400 million in taxpayer funding to two Secret Service accounts earlier this month. The bulk of the funds went toward the agency\u2019s procurement, construction and improvements account, while about $11 million was apportioned to a Secret Service operations and support account for the purpose of \u201cWhite House Security Measures,\u201d according to the Protect Democracy Project\u2019s database, OpenOMB.org, which tracks apportionments made by the Office of Management and Budget.<\/p>\n<p>The funding was then directed to the \u201cWhite House Repair and Restoration\u201d account belonging to the Executive Office of the President, which controls the East Wing modernization project, the administration confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>The funds were initially drawn from $1.17 billion allotted to the Secret Service as part of the 2025 reconciliation law.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=380\">Supreme Court backs US power to strip green cards<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Democrats called for the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, to provide \u201ca legal decision on whether the administration\u2019s use of these funds violates federal law,\u201d noting that the reconciliation law says the money\u00a0\u201cmay only be used for\u201d measures such as personnel, training facilities, programming, technology, and performance, retention and signing bonuses for agents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Trump Administration has confirmed to our staff and the press that it plans to tap Secret Service funding to support the ballroom, but there is no funding available for that purpose,\u201d Democrats wrote. President Donald Trump had said the ballroom would cost $400 million and be fully paid for by private donations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The administration has said the public funds would\u00a0not be used for the White House\u2019s ballroom construction project and that the Secret Service intends to put the cash toward security upgrades.<\/p>\n<p>But Democrats say the recent disbursements raise \u201cserious legal concerns,\u201d while arguing that the funding could violate the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits agencies from spending funds except as prescribed by Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=378\">When parties take victory laps too soon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top Democratic appropriators are calling on the Government Accountability Office to probe the Trump administration&#8217;s release of nearly $400 million of taxpayer funds for a White House East Wing modernization project that includes a ballroom. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who is the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Christopher S. Murphy of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Democrats seek probe of Secret Service disbursements - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=384\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democrats seek probe of Secret Service disbursements - American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Top Democratic appropriators are calling on the Government Accountability Office to probe the Trump administration&#8217;s release of nearly $400 million of taxpayer funds for a White House East Wing modernization project that includes a ballroom. 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