Nevada Sen. Rosen offers different proposal for Senate's $1B ballroom plan

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., arrives at the chamber as the Senate works to bring the longest government shutdown in U.S. history to an end after a bipartisan compromise, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. Photo by: J. Scott Applewhite / AP, file

Senate Republicans are hoping to spend $1 billion in taxpayer money on security upgrades for President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom — a project the administration previously pledged would be built by private donors, not the public purse. U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., thinks she knows of a better use for that cash, and on Tuesday, she released a report detailing exactly how far those funds could stretch for struggling Nevadans.

“After cutting funding for healthcare and SNAP for Nevadans who needed them the most, Washington Republicans have unveiled a plan to use the same hyperpartisan approach to spend $1 billion in taxpayer dollars on Donald Trump’s ballroom,” Rosen said. “Let’s be absolutely clear: This is a vanity project that did not need to happen, and now Nevadans’ hard-earned money will be wasted at a time when they’re being squeezed by the spike in prices at the pump, grocery and doctor’s office.”

SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provides low-income households with monthly benefits to purchase groceries.

Here's some of the evidence Rosen cites:

• Healthcare: The sum could cover a full year of Medicaid for the roughly 167,714 Nevadans who have lost coverage since 2023, or extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits for nearly two years for the 95,000 Nevadans who relied on them last year to save an average of $465 a month. Those enhanced credits, first introduced in 2021 and extended through 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act, expired Jan. 1 after Congress failed to reach agreement on an extension, pushing average marketplace premiums up an estimated 114% for affected enrollees.

• Food security: Beyond restoring SNAP benefits, the $1 billion could cover a year’s worth of groceries for 96,246 Nevada families, given that the average household in the state spends about $10,390 on groceries annually. The One Big Beautiful Bill, signed by Trump on July 4, 2025, tightened the program’s work requirements and shifted a portion of its costs to states, triggering a wave of benefit losses across the country.

• Housing: The funding could pay for a year of rent for about 62,096 Nevada households, based on the state’s average rent of approximately $1,342.

• Childcare: The money could cover the average cost of childcare for 78,995 Nevada infants for a full year, with the average annual cost per infant running about $12,659. The childcare figure carries a particular sting: During the 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to pay for childcare using tariff revenue. The Supreme Court struck down most of his tariffs in February, ruling he had exceeded his authority.

For context, the report notes that the $1 billion earmarked for the ballroom’s security is roughly equivalent to the total federal funding Nevada received last year for its transportation, education and agriculture departments combined.

This allocation is tucked inside a roughly $70 billion immigration enforcement package that Senate Republicans are fast-tracking through a partisan budget process to avoid a potential Democratic filibuster. They argue the funding — intended for Secret Service security adjustments and upgrades, including enhanced above- and below-ground security features — is an urgent necessity after the April 25 assassination attempt on Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

Senate Democrats, however, have decried the inclusion of the ballroom project in an immigration bill as a “hyperpartisan giveaway,” and they plan to force a vote to strip the provision when the legislation reaches the floor.