A group of lawmakers warned Trump administration officials that they can’t build a 250-foot triumphal arch in Washington, D.C., without congressional approval — and that if they do move forward with the project, they could face consequences.
In a letter sent Monday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and two National Park Service officials, six lawmakers cautioned that building President Donald Trump’s proposed arch in the nation’s capital would violate multiple statutes and that the NPS has “no power” to build it.
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The letter says the administration would be violating the Commemorative Works Act, which governs commemorative works in and around the nation’s capital.”
“Since 1986, every memorial placed on federal land in the capital under the Act, more than forty in all, has come to Congress first,” reads the letter, signed by Sens. Angus King (I-ME), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Reps. Jared Huffman (D-CA), Maxine Dexter (D-OR), and Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ). “The World War II Memorial alone required two acts of Congress before the NPS issued a construction permit. The Arch’s sponsor has sought no act at all.”
The letter said the proposed arch also violates a 1912 statute, which states that a building or structure can’t be erected on any federal grounds in Washington “without express authority of Congress.”
And at a proposed 250 feet, the lawmakers wrote, the administration would violate the 1910 Height of Buildings Act established by Congress, which caps buildings in Washington at 130 feet.
The letter says the NPS’s proposed 70,072-square-foot, five-level building cannot be legally approved by executive order, as one would not substitute for the congressional approval required for memorials located within D.C.
And in addition to the arch’s construction being illegal, the lawmakers wrote, Trump officials could face personal consequences, including fines or even removal from office, for taking part in the project.
“Every official who directs this work, and every firm that performs it, proceeds at their own peril,” they wrote.
Measuring 250 feet at its highest point, the Trump arch would honor the 250th anniversary of America’s independence and would sit between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The project would take an estimated two to three years to finish, which would be after Trump leaves office.
“If the Administration believes the semiquincentennial warrants a permanent commemorative work in the capital, the path is open and well worn; it runs through Congress, as it has for every memorial since the Continental Congress approved the first, an equestrian statue of George Washington, in 1783,” the letter reads.
This is not Trump’s first time facing legal challenges to reconstruction projects in Washington. The Kennedy Center removed Trump’s name from its building and website following a ruling that said the center was named “by statute” in honor of the late President John F. Kennedy.
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Trump officials have defended the arch amid mounting concerns.
National Capital Planning Commission Chairman William Scharf suggested this month that, in the “best reading” of the Height of Buildings Act, the law doesn’t apply to federal construction such as the arch, paving the way for the project.
