A reflecting pool repaint that the president said would cost $1.5 to $2 million has reached roughly $16 million in federal contracts. Part of the work was handed out without competitive bidding to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a company that had previously done work at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia and had never held a federal contract before.
That is the kind of arrangement competitive bidding exists to prevent. And the work is failing. The blue polyurea coating is delaminating, the water turned green with algae within days of refilling, and the administration paid another $1.74 million for a system to fix the algae the project created.
This is public money and a national monument, not a private renovation. I am asking you to do three things.
First, request a Government Accountability Office or Inspector General audit of the full cost of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation and how every contract was awarded.
Second, demand the records behind the no-bid award to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, including any connection to the president's private businesses.
Third, require that any further repair be competitively bid and that the National Park Service report what redoing the failed coating will cost taxpayers.
The Lincoln Memorial belongs to the public. Please make sure the money spent on it is accounted for and the contracts are clean.
