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A nonprofit organization is suing the Trump administration to halt plans to paint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue. Here's NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas.
ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS, BYLINE: The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed its lawsuit yesterday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. It's suing the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, saying there was no federal review of the plans to paint the reflecting pool's basin blue. In the lawsuit, TCLF says such a review is mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act. Last month, President Trump revealed his plans for the pool do-over. In a video the White House posted to YouTube, he said it would be completed in time for the country's 250th anniversary celebrations in July.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And I said, give me a good price. We can do it for maybe $1.5 million to $2 million as opposed to...
TSIOULCAS: But The New York Times reported yesterday that the project's final cost could be upwards of $13 million. That's in a no-bid contract given to a firm Trump chose, per documents the Times says it obtained. In an unsigned comment email to NPR, the Interior Department did not confirm the price of the project but wrote, quote, the contract price reflects the effort necessary to expedite the timeline of completing the leak prevention coating project. More people, more materials, more equipment and longer hours ahead of our 250th." Charles A. Birnbaum, the president and founder of TCLF, says the suit is not about being the design police. He says there are bigger issues at stake.
CHARLES A BIRNBAUM: So normally, you would start this process before you started doing stuff because the letter of the law is to avoid, to minimize and to mitigate any harm that could happen to a historic resource that's part of our shared cultural heritage, let alone on the 250th anniversary of our country.
TSIOULCAS: Still, Birnbaum adds, the bright blue in Trump's vision interrupts the intended historic landscape design and the emotions that we associate with that place. TCLF has another open lawsuit against the federal administration. It's one of eight cultural and architecture groups currently suing President Trump and the board of the Kennedy Center over the planned renovations of the arts complex. That construction is planned to start in July.
Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR News, New York.
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