Boyle Leads Fight to Block Billion-Dollar Ballroom

WASHINGTON, DC – Today on the House floor, Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-02), Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, slammed Trump and Republicans for attempting to steal $1 billion in taxpayer funds for a White House ballroom in their latest budget.

Ranking Member Boyle offered an amendment to block Republicans from using taxpayer dollars for Trump's ballroom.

Even as they insist our nation can't afford to deliver health care to families in need, every House Republican voted to block Ranking Member Boyle's amendment.

Remarks as delivered and video are below:

(Click for video of remarks as delivered)

Ranking Member Boyle's remarks as delivered:
Right now, costs are going through the roof thanks to President Trump's tariff taxes and his reckless war in Iran. Families are paying more for gas. They're paying more for groceries, paying more for housing, paying more for health care.

The list goes on and on. 15 million Americans are about to lose their health care coverage because of that so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill" Republicans passed and the president signed into law last summer, which just happens to be one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation in modern legislative history.

Millions losing food assistance because of that disastrous law. Working families getting stretched every day by the dollar. And while all this is happening, what is our president focused on? A ballroom.

This tells you everything you need to know about this president's priorities. The American people are asking for lower costs. Donald Trump is asking for a taxpayer-funded vanity project at the White House.

So maybe we should start calling Republicans' Reconciliation 2.0 what it really is: the Billion Dollar Ballroom Act. Because this Republican agenda can somehow find money for Donald Trump's ballroom and his billionaire donors, but it can never seem to find a dime to lower costs for the American people.

Not enough money to protect health care, not enough money to protect food assistance, not enough money to lower the cost of gas, groceries, housing, or health care. But somehow there is more money for Donald Trump's big, beautiful ballroom. That is the problem with this entire agenda.

It asks working families to pay more and get less, all while Donald Trump gets exactly what he wants. They can find money for tax breaks for billionaires. They can find money for giveaways to the well-connected. They can find money for Donald Trump's ballroom. But when it comes to helping families afford a gallon of gas, a bag of groceries, a doctor's visit, a safe place to live, suddenly Republicans say, "We have no money."

Americans have been loud and clear. They want costs to go down, and they want it now. They do not want their taxpayer dollars spent on a ballroom so this president can host lavish events with his billionaire friends.

If the president cared as much about lowering costs for the American people as he does his precious ballroom, maybe a pound of beef would not cost more than an hour of work at the federal minimum wage.

For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill. My amendment would simply prohibit taxpayer funding for Donald Trump's White House ballroom.

It is simple. Not one taxpayer dollar, not one dime, should be spent on a vanity ballroom while Americans are losing health care, losing food assistance, and struggling to make ends meet.

I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record the text of this amendment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I hope, and indeed urge my colleagues, to join me in voting for this simple motion to recommit.

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