The White House fired all six members of an independent agency that reviews construction projects in Washington, D.C., purging one of the groups expected to oversee President Trump’s building proposals, including a new ballroom, officials said.
The Commission of Fine Arts, established by Congress in 1910, is charged with giving expert advice to the president, Congress and other officials on design and preservation. The president appoints members of the commission to four-year terms. Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had appointed all six members, after firing some of Mr. Trump’s appointees, with some commissioners set for terms ending in 2028.
A White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly said that a new slate of members who are more aligned with Mr. Trump’s policies would be appointed to the commission.
The purge of the board comes as Mr. Trump plans several ambitious construction projects in Washington. Much of the board’s mandate focuses on the strict rules of urban planning in the capital, as well as on historical preservation — for which Mr. Trump has shown little patience. Last week, construction crews razed the entire East Wing of the White House to make room for his ballroom, which is estimated to cost $300 million. Mr. Trump previously claimed that the construction would not even touch the East Wing.
Mr. Trump has also proposed the building of a new triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial — a project that would nominally have to undergo a yearslong approval process. The Commemorative Works Act of 1986 lays out a process for new memorials, stating that they must be authorized by Congress and then go through several stages of planning, design and review involving both the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission.
The president’s approach to the renovation projects — undertaken at breakneck speed — sharply diverges from that of his predecessors. When President Harry S. Truman overhauled the White House in the 1940s, he consulted Congress, the American Society of Civil Engineers, as well as the Commission of Fine Arts, which approved sketches of the design as well as smaller details like fabric samples and color schemes.
Mr. Trump, who has already plunged into the biggest construction project at the White House since Truman, is bypassing all of that.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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