{"id":353516,"date":"2025-12-17T05:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T05:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/353516\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T05:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T05:55:10","slug":"maryland-congressman-introduces-legislation-backed-by-the-aia-to-preserve-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/353516\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Congressman introduces legislation, backed by the AIA, to preserve the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Washington, D.C.<\/a> Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin introduced legislation today<\/a> to preserve the White House. The AIA<\/a> is working with Congressman Raskin\u2019s office on the bill.<\/p>\n

Carole Wedge<\/a>, the AIA\u2019s executive director, told AN this \u201clegislation will ensure that any future alterations to the White House, including large-scale projects like the East Ballroom addition, are subject to transparent review and public accountability processes that reflect the building\u2019s historic and symbolic significance to the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American Institute of Architects supports The People\u2019s White House Historic Preservation Act,\u201d Wedge affirmed.<\/p>\n

The People\u2019s White House Historic Preservation Act would require the president to submit White House renovation proposals to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC<\/a>) and U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA<\/a>), establishing a new formal review and public comment process to hold the executive office accountable to the American people.<\/p>\n

The legislation is in response to \u201cPresident Donald Trump\u2019s demolition of the East Wing to build a massive ballroom funded by corporations and wealthy donors,\u201d Raskin\u2019s office said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cAmericans watched in horror as President Trump reduced the East Wing of the White House to a pile of rubble to pave the way for his self-appointed Marie Antoinette ballroom,\u201d Raskin affirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy legislation returns power to the American people to protect the house we built for our presidents,\u201d the Maryland Congressman continued. \u201cThe White House belongs to all of us\u2014not to one lawless president building a ballroom funded by tech oligarchs and his fellow plutocrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Aerial view of the former East Wing construction site on December 3 (G. Edward Johnson\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>\/CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

If approved, the bill would remove the White House\u2019s statutory exemption from the National Historic Preservation Act\u2019s Section 106 review process, an exemption the Department of Justice (DOJ) invoked yesterday<\/a> to defend President Trump\u2019s actions. \u201cThe president possesses statutory authority to modify the structure of his residence, and that authority is supported by background principles of executive power,\u201d DOJ stated in a filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bill would give NCPC, CFA, and other stakeholders authority to reject \u201cpotentially adverse\u201d changes to the White House by the president. The parties would need to agree on a resolution and record it though a Memorandum of Agreement or Programmatic Agreement. If the parties cannot reach a resolution, the proposal would be brought before the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which would have the final say.<\/p>\n

Co-sponsors of Raskin\u2019s bill are representatives Andre Carson, Troy Carter, Judy Chu, Yvette Clarke, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Danny Davis, Madeleine Dean, Veronica Escobar, Valerie Foushee, Robert Garcia, Dan Goldman, Steny Hoyer, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Dave Min, Gwen Moore, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Chellie Pingree, Jan Schakowsky, Mark Takano, Bennie G. Thompson, Dina Titus, Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez, Mark Pocan, Sylvia Garcia, and Jared Huffman.<\/p>\n

This news comes after a lawsuit<\/a> was filed December 12 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that said \u201cdozens of workers [are] driving piles, stockpiling materials, and amassing heavy machinery<\/a>\u201d at the former East Wing site, where the gilded $300 million ballroom<\/a> is underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Washington, D.C. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin introduced legislation today to preserve the White House. The AIA is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-353516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}