Taxpayers Are Supposed To Shell Out $150 Million for Next Year’s July 4th Celebrations
Consumer spending on 2025 Fourth of July celebrations is expected to reach $8.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation—a slight decrease from previous years, but still well above pre-pandemic level spending. Next year, taxpayers can expect to pay even more for Independence Day festivities, albeit indirectly.
On Friday, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. Tucked away in the sprawling 870-page tax and spending bill is a section that allocates $150 million for “events, celebrations, and activities surrounding the observance and commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.” The funding, which will be appropriated to the Interior Department, shall remain available through FY 2028.
Appropriately, Trump signed the bill—which is expected to add nearly $4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade—at a Fourth of July celebration on the White House South Lawn, complete with fireworks and a B-2 jet flyover.
Commemorating America’s 250th birthday has been a quiet priority of the second Trump administration. In January, the president signed an executive order that established the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday. The task force, which is housed in the defense department, will coordinate with federal agencies “to plan, organize, and execute an extraordinary celebration of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence and shall coordinate agencies’ communications with the United States Semiquincentennial Commission.” (The White House has since launched a website that i
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