Do you approve of President Trump's new construction projects at the White House, including a new helipad?
The Washington Post reported that President Trump showed off a newly built helipad and touted other construction projects on the White House grounds.
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Only with approval of Congress. Hope the courts continue to uphold the law.
I believe that the Supreme Court will uphold the law and that law is that White House construction is exempt from oversight by the National Historic Places Board (as are the Capitol and the Supreme Court Building, see PL 68-665 Sect 106-7.) Congress could pass a law restricting the construction, but they have not done that and so the President has the power to authorize such construction on his own. (I do not like or support President Trump in almost any way, but in this case, one of the few, I believe he has the law on his side - and that is pretty rare!)
I had to research this one because I admittedly am anchoring on headline news on this one. Here's what I learned: The White House is exempt from the National Historic Preservation Act’s Section 106 review, but that doesn't override 40 U.S.C. §8106, which requires congressional authority to erect a building on federal grounds in DC
The East Wing was already there. They are just "renovating" it. You can argue that is NOT what they are doing, but that's an argument that I expect the President would win. He is, after all, the resident of the White House. And Congress is in the hands of the GOP anyway, so what does it matter?
You'd think with a change of this scale to the people's house, he'd want broader input, whether required by law or not. Starting to feel more like a palace that a people's house. Like you, though, I do still think SCOTUS will do the right thing.
Sorry I had to recover from my extensive laughing hysterically fit just now. "You'd think...he'd want broader input..."? You must be smoking some pretty good stuff tonight LOL! When has Trump ever wanted ANY input from ANYONE (unless they are blonde and have good... moves :-) )? We shall see!
Should he? Yes. Would I expect it? Definitely not. While I was first just disappointed that we would elect someone of Trump's character, I'm now most disappointed that, even after so many acts of self-enrichment, cronyism, retribution, and disregard for institutional norms, there as still so many that still support him.
Renovations happen under every president, so where's your line: is this a sensible upgrade to a working building, or a vanity project that crosses it? What would change your mind?
Every President in the past has let the National Historic Places board (I may have gotten that wording slightly wrong, but its in PL 68-665) do the authorizations, but Section 107 explicitly states that the three major buildings in Washington, the White House, the Capitol and the Supreme Court are NOT subject to the board's approvals. That pretty much says it all.