President Donald Trump’s plans for a monumental White House ballroom will be aired Thursday before another federal panel that’s coming under his grip.
Though still three members short of a full roster, the Commission of Fine Arts will be primed to review the current ballroom plans once Trump’s first four appointees are sworn in at the start of the Thursday morning hearing. They are replacing commissioners fired by the president last October.
While the commission is strictly advisory with regard to the ballroom project, in theory it provides a fresh set of eyes on a project that’s been intensely controversial since construction crews began tearing down the White House’s East Wing last October. The National Capital Planning Commission, now dominated by three new Trump appointees of its own, has approval authority and had its first project briefing on Jan. 8.
“Every day, people from across the country and around the globe visit the White House and surrounding grounds, they look to it as a representation of the values that we as Americans stand for,” Josh Fisher, director of management and administration for the White House, told the commission, adding that “it is our responsibility to ensure that those given the opportunity to come inside the fence and those viewing from Lafayette Park or the Ellipse, experience the pride and the powerful symbol of American democracy and leadership.”
