{"id":113,"date":"2026-05-28T20:17:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/professionalmoversusa.com\/?p=113"},"modified":"2026-05-28T20:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:17:49","slug":"congressional-democrats-argue-in-filing-that-white-house-ballroom-construction-shouldnt-proceed-without-congress-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/professionalmoversusa.com\/?p=113","title":{"rendered":"Congressional Democrats argue in filing that White House ballroom construction shouldn&#8217;t proceed without Congress&#8217; consent"},"content":{"rendered":"<section>\n<p>Roughly 150 Democratic lawmakers filed a legal brief Thursday in the ongoing <span>White House East Wing litigation<\/span>, asserting that <span>construction<\/span> cannot continue until the Trump administration obtains express consent from Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/professionalmoversusa.com\/?p=111\">Some artists drop out of D.C. concert series for America\u2019s 250th anniversary shortly after lineup announced<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The President cannot undertake any construction at the White House\u2014much less demolish one of its wings\u2014without clear authorization from Congress, as well as an appropriation of funds to do so,&#8221; lawyers for the Democrats wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The coalition of lawmakers is led by Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Jared Huffman of Colorado, and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.<\/p>\n<p>They argue that the president has no right to <span>demolish structures<\/span> or to build new ones on White House grounds because &#8220;[t]he Constitution grants Congress exclusive control over all federal property,&#8221; and it has yet to approve funding or an authorization for the project.<\/p>\n<p>The administration has contended that a statute permitting the White House to perform routine maintenance and repairs to the executive mansion provides a legal justification for the privately funded $400 million demolition and construction of the East Wing. Congress only appropriated about $2.5 million for such repairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Congress &#8220;does not fund largescale construction projects with drop-in-the-bucket funding,&#8221; the lawmakers wrote in the amicus brief.<\/p>\n<p>The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit against President Trump late last year. In March, a federal judge ruled that construction could not proceed until Congress green-lit the project. A panel of appellate judges has temporarily allowed construction to continue and will hear arguments next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/professionalmoversusa.com\/?p=109\">Treasury Department is weighing a $250 bill with Trump\u2019s image<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has argued in recent filings that reconstruction of the East Wing \u2014 which includes a ballroom, kitchen space and secure facilities \u2014 is a matter of national security. He has claimed the <span>shootings<\/span> at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner and near the Eisenhower Executive Office Building last Saturday make completion of the project all the more urgent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Senate Republicans briefly contemplated a measure that would have <span>provided a billion dollars<\/span> to bolster ballroom security, but that provision has since been dropped from a larger GOP bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;President Trump is building a billion-dollar ballroom. Everyone should be disgusted by his illegal and unconstitutional vanity project. We are fighting this in court,&#8221; said Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.<\/p>\n<p>Two other interested parties filed amici briefs in the ballroom case this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Campaign Legal Center, two nonprofits focused on government ethics, wrote that accepting ballroom donations from companies and individuals with business before the government presents a conflict of interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Congress should appropriate money for the ballroom, the ethics groups asserted. &#8220;This is a check against both Executive extravagance and the risk of corrupting influence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A consortium of architects and preservationists filed a separate brief, also taking a stand against the administration, arguing, &#8220;The president has no inherent authority to direct destruction of historic federal property within a national park and then use private funds to satisfy his personal quest to build a massive, discordant, above-ground ballroom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/professionalmoversusa.com\/?p=105\">Jill Biden says she thought Joe Biden was \u201chaving a stroke\u201d during 2024 debate. Here\u2019s what she said at the time.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><br \/>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic lawmakers argue the Trump administration must get express consent from Congress before continuing construction on the White House ballroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,54],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump","tag-white-house"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Congressional Democrats argue in filing that White House ballroom construction shouldn&#039;t proceed without Congress&#039; consent - Professional Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/professionalmoversusa.com\/?p=113\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Congressional Democrats argue in filing that White House ballroom construction shouldn&#039;t proceed without Congress&#039; 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