Hardening the People’s House: The National Security Case for White House Modernization

Overview

On September 11, 2001, as the United States faced the worst terrorist attack in its history, Vice President Dick Cheney sat in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), the underground command post beneath the White House East Wing from which the President, senior military officials, and cabinet members would manage the national emergency that day. "The comms in this place are terrible," Cheney told National Security Council member Richard Clarke. "Now you know why I wanted the money for a new bunker", Clarke responded, referring to a request that had been scrapped months earlier. The PEOC was being tested for the first time in a genuine national emergency, and it failed. More than two decades later, that same facility, with infrastructure still dating to the 1940s, remains beneath the White House.

Originally built in 1902 and last significantly renovated in 1942, the East Wing of the White House is in desperate need of a structural and security overhaul. There is a clear national security need for a larger, technologically advanced nerve center from which the President can lead our nation during a time of crisis. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Secret Service have both stated that proposed security funding is critical to addressing an unprecedented increase in threats against the President and other senior officials. These statements, of course, come on the heels of the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April 2026 and the February 2026 incident at Mar-a-Lago, where a man with a shotgun and a gas can made it into President Trump’s private club, pointed his firearm at Secret Service and police, and was subsequently killed by them.

While the construction of a “ballroom” has gotten much of the media's and opponents' attention, rather than the security upgrades, a replacement above-ground structure was always going to be built to cover the new military complex beneath it, and the White House has stated repeatedly that it will be funded with non-taxpayer dollars. The proposed $1 billion in security funding, which covers direct White House security hardening, a new visitor screening facility, and a broad range of Secret Service operational investments, should be the focus. The real policy question before Congress is whether to adequately fund the security infrastructure surrounding it.

Background

An Aging Facility at the Core of America’s National Security

The White House East Wing’s structure dates to 1902, with its most significant expansion, the construction of the PEOC, made during World War II. The PEOC is an underground bunker built after Pearl Harbor, with seven-foot-thick walls, designed to serve as a secure command post for the President and senior staff in the event of a national emergency. On top of the PEOC, a two-story structure was built that still stands today. For decades, the PEOC has served as the physical backbone of American continuity-of-government planning, including during the September 11, 2001, attacks and periods of civil emergency.

Of note, the structure was built and last comprehensively renovated during an era when asbestos was standard in commercial and government construction and when electrical, communications, and mechanical systems bore no resemblance to those required today. White House Management and Administration Director Joshua Fischer confirmed in a January 2026 court filing that the complex requires remediation of water infiltration and outdated electrical infrastructure, and identified potential hazardous materials, including asbestos and lead-based paint, consistent with the building's construction era, along with plans to bring the facility into ADA compliance for the first time. Administration officials have separately identified roof problems, leaks, mold, and safety code violations as conditions that require attention.

A Brief History of White House Modernization

The East Wing Modernization Project is the latest in a long line of structural, infrastructural, and security upgrades to the White House complex. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned the construction of the East Wing, officially described as additional office space, but built primarily to conceal the PEOC, whose military purpose was deliberately obscured for security reasons.

The most extensive renovation in White House history came under President Truman, whose engineers determined in 1948 that the Executive Residence was facing near-imminent structural collapse. Congress approved a complete gut renovation, adding new foundations, two sub-basements, and modern mechanical and electrical systems throughout to ensure the latest technology was in the most important residence on the planet. More recently, a four-year, $376 million renovation of the East and West Wings began in 2010 following a Bush Administration report that electrical, heating, and fire alarm systems, some of which had not been updated since 1902, were periodically failing. In 2023, the Biden Administration completed a $50 million full renovation of the Situation Room (the classified national security operations center in the West Wing) with little public controversy.

What the Security Funding Actually Covers

The public debate has sometimes confused the private donor-funded construction (the ballroom) with the funding for security infrastructure currently before Congress. These are legally and financially separate, and it is essential to clarify that difference.

At its January 2026 presentation before the National Capital Planning Commission, the architect of the above-ground structure stated that the new East Wing will be a two-level, 89,000-square-foot building containing a 20,000-square-foot ballroom on the second floor. The structure's sides will be constructed of four-inch-thick bulletproof glass with a drone-proof roof. The ballroom will have a seated capacity of up to 1,000 guests, roughly five times the capacity of the East Room, which is the current primary venue for formal White House events. The ballroom will be privately funded without the assistance of taxpayer dollars. On the other hand, the proposed $1 billion in security funding before Congress is for White House security upgrades and explicitly disallows its use for “non-security elements of the East Wing Modernization Project,” meaning the ballroom.

According to data presented by Secret Service Director Sean Curran, the $1 billion is allocated as follows: $220 million for “hardening” of the White House complex, including bulletproof glass, drone detection technologies, and chemical and biological threat filtration systems; $180 million for a new visitor security screening facility; $175 million for Secret Service training “in the modern threat environment;” $175 million for improving Secret Service security; $150 million for countering drones, airspace incursions, and other emerging threats; and $100 million for security at “high-profile national events.”

Only the first line item, $220 million, is directly tied to the physical East Wing structure, and it is not exclusive to that structure. The remaining $780 million funds Secret Service operational, training, and technology investments that exist independently of any particular construction project. Understanding the composition of this request is essential to evaluating the merits of such a proposal. The question before Congress is whether to fund a package of Secret Service security investments, anchored by the hardening of a facility that would be under construction regardless of the ballroom designation.

Why White House Safety and Modernization Upgrades Are Necessary Now

The Threat Environment

The modernization effort is unfolding against a backdrop of heightened and documented security concerns for the executive branch. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Secret Service Director Sean Curran formally described the proposed security funding as "critical funding to address urgent needs in response to the unprecedented increase in threats against the President and other public officials."

In April 2026, a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner brought additional urgency to the discussion. The incident, along with a separate shooting near the National Mall shortly thereafter, and the Mar-a-Lago incident in February, prompted the administration to accelerate its request for dedicated security hardening of the White House complex. Secretary Mullin and Director Curran stated that the proposed upgrades would "afford needed protection for the President, his family, and visitors, along with the below-ground security functions."

The cost of inaction has real consequences for national security. Leaving an 80-year-old continuity-of-government facility unmodernized signals to our adversaries the limits of American commitment to protecting our most vital interests. It also leaves Secret Service personnel defending a security perimeter whose architecture was designed for a different era, against threats that did not exist when it was built.

An Event Space Within the White House Complex is Important to National Security

The security argument for the ballroom extends beyond protecting against physical attacks, as we saw at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April. It addresses a counterintelligence vulnerability when the White House hosts high-level diplomatic and governmental functions at hotels and external venues; those environments cannot be fully controlled against foreign intelligence collection.

Foreign intelligence services see hotel rooms, ballrooms, and conference facilities as priority collection targets. The ability of the Secret Service and counterintelligence professionals to fully sweep and secure those environments is inherently limited because the U.S. government does not control them. The White House complex, by contrast, operates under continuous, comprehensive physical and electronic security protocols that no other venue can replicate.

The savings in time, bandwidth, and costs for the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies should also be considered. Each time the President travels off White House grounds, the Secret Service must secure motorcade routes, establish perimeters at external venues, coordinate with local law enforcement, and manage the inherent vulnerabilities of moving the President through public spaces. A permanent event space inside the White House perimeter does not eliminate presidential travel, but it reduces the frequency with which the President and a large concentration of senior officials, cabinet members, and foreign dignitaries must gather outside controlled grounds, where the security calculus is fundamentally harder to manage.

The Above-Ground Structure Above the PEOC Would be Built Anyway

Something frequently absent from press coverage of this debate is the fact that a new above-ground structure at the East Wing site was always likely to be built. The military is actively constructing a new, significantly larger classified complex beneath the footprint of the former East Wing, and that complex requires an above-ground structure to cover and support it. President Trump addressed this directly on March 29, 2026, stating: "The military's building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that's under construction, and we're doing very well. The ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the U.S. military is upgrading facilities under the new East Wing, though specifics remain classified.

Recommendations and Conclusion

The debate over this project has been defined by a deliberate conflation of two separate things: obscuring the important distinction between funding and function. The matter of a privately funded above-ground structure to expand space for White House functions is different from a taxpayer-funded security package for a facility that the nation's most senior protective officials have certified as urgently necessary. Both projects address distinct needs, but the oversimplified media portrayal ignores the longstanding national security case for taxpayer-funded security modernization and indeed the record of successive administrations in doing so during their tenures in office. Congress is not being asked to fund a ballroom. It is being asked to fund necessary upgrades to counterintelligence-grade security infrastructure, and a modernized continuity-of-government facility at a time when threats against the President and senior officials have reached levels described as unprecedented.

Every prior administration has recognized the need to maintain world-class protective infrastructure around the President. The Truman gut renovation, the Bush/Obama-era infrastructure overhaul, the Biden Situation Room, and other renovations. Each reflected a straightforward judgment that the seat of American government must keep pace with the demands placed on it.

Many lawmakers have recognized the escalating threat environment facing elected officials, as evidenced by the more than $41 million spent on security by federal office candidates from 2014 to 2024, with 2020-2024 accounting for nearly half of that spending. Additionally, in July 2021, Congress passed a bipartisan $2.1 billion Capitol security package. These threats are equally, if not more, present at the White House. Allowing that vulnerability to persist presents an unacceptable risk.  

As of May 21, 2026, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled the $1 billion security provision violated the Byrd Rule and could not be included in the reconciliation bill as written, and Senate Republican leaders may abandon the proposal. Some in Senate Republican leadership have indicated they will attempt to redraft and resubmit a revised provision.