On July 29, 2026, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department, disclosed that the administration was seeking about $10 million more in taxpayer money to reimburse the National Park Service for costs tied to three Freedom 250 events on the National Mall: the “Rededicate 250” prayer event, the Great American State Fair, and the July 4 “Salute to America.” The Office of Management and Budget had included “an unspecified amount of funding” within a larger $113 million item “to recoup costs associated with support of events celebrating America's Semiquincentennial” in a July 21 list of provisions for a short-term spending bill; Interior staff then told Merkley's office the department was seeking $10 million.
The request came on top of the $150 million Congress appropriated for 250th-anniversary events through the 2025 reconciliation law, which Merkley wrote was provided “with the administration promising that private donors would help finance the rest.” Freedom 250 is the public-private partnership the Trump administration founded to run the events; it effectively sidelined America250, the congressionally mandated organization, which told USA Today it had received only “a portion” of the reconciliation-law funds.
According to Merkley's letter, Interior staff described the costs as routine event support. Publicly, the department cited an “elevated security posture” made necessary by threats including the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting in April and a foiled attack on the White House UFC fight. Merkley wrote, “It is unacceptable to ask the American people to bail out Freedom 250,” and asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for a full accounting of the $150 million and a list of Freedom 250 donors, including any withdrawn or canceled donations, by August 7. A Freedom 250 spokesperson said “Democrats are trying to make America's 250th birthday about partisan politics.” The Independent reported that the Great American State Fair suffered poor attendance, artist cancellations, and closures and delays from heat and storms (see House Democrats Say Donations Meant for the Nonpartisan America250 Commission Were Routed to Trump's Similarly Named 'Freedom 250' and Trump Spent the 'Rededicate 250' Faith Rally on the National Mall Golfing in Virginia, Appearing Only by Recorded Video).
Correction (October 2, 2026): The entry said the Interior Department asked Congress for the money on July 29. Merkley's letter shows OMB sent the request to Congress on July 21 as an unspecified amount inside a $113 million item, and Interior staff later put the Park Service share at $10 million; July 29 is when Merkley disclosed it. The entry also now notes that, according to Merkley, Interior staff called these routine event-support costs.
Update (October 17, 2026): on October 13 the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the Interior Department and the National Park Service in federal court in Washington (No. 1:26-cv-03563) for records it requested in March and May on the Rededicate 250 prayer event and on Freedom 250 contracts and payments tied to religious events and the “America Prays” initiative. It is a public-records suit, not a challenge to the funding itself. “This administration cannot use taxpayer money to promote religious events and then keep the public in the dark about how that money was spent,” FFRF legal director Patrick Elliott said.