New York Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres is asking the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate a lucrative construction deal the National Park Service granted to a prominent Washington-area contractor that’s also building President Donald Trump’s ballroom.
The administration in January gave Clark Construction an $11 million, no-bid contract to rehabilitate two historic fountains in Lafayette Square, a green space across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, according to recent reporting from The New York Times.
The contract later grew to $17.4 million when additional work was added, a price tag that sharply exceeds a 2022 estimate of $3.3 million for the Lafayette work, according to the report. The National Park Service has blamed inflation.
“The Trump administration claims to care about waste, fraud, and abuse … while quietly handing out a no-bid foundation contract at 427% over estimate to the same contractor building Trump’s ballroom,” Torres said, a member of the House Financial Service Committee.
