Lawmakers caution Burgum, NPS they have 'no power to build' Trump's arch [View all]

Source: The Hill

06/15/26 10:19 PM ET


A group of six lawmakers sent a letter on Monday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Acting Director of the National Park Service (NPS) Jessica Bowron and one other official alerting them that they have “no power to build” a triumphal arch without approval from Congress.

“We oppose this project in the strongest terms and object to execution of the draft Programmatic Agreement. The National Park Service (NPS) is assessing the effects of an undertaking that Congress has never authorized and that two federal statutes squarely prohibit,” Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman (Calif.), Maxine Dexter (Ore.) and Yaasmin Ansari (Ariz.) wrote.

“Section 106 [of the National Historic Preservation Act] consultation cannot supply that missing authority, and no programmatic agreement can resolve the adverse effects of a project the NPS has no power to build,” they added.

Five representatives and one lone senator said that efforts to erect a 250-foot triumphal arch violate the Height of Buildings Act under its current dimensions and the Commemorative Works Act, which requires congressional approval to erect structures on federal land. “A departure of this magnitude from the capital’s settled vertical order is precisely the kind of decision the law reserves to Congress,” lawmakers wrote. “Beyond its illegality, the Arch would deface one of the most deliberate and historic sightlines in America,” they added.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5925597-lawmakers-oppose-triumphal-arch/