President Donald Trump's administration handed millions in taxpayer funds to a company already working on a White House refurbishment, a report has shown.
Trump chose the Maryland-based Clark Construction to build his $400 million ballroom, but an investigation from the New York Times exposed a separate deal with the firm to work on another job. The National Park Service's request to repair two ornamental fountains in Lafayette Park would have cost the admin $3.3 million, according to estimates drafted by the Biden administration in 2022.
Trump has since issued Clark Construction with an $11.9 million contract, which has since increased to $17.4 million. David A. Fahrenthold, Luke Broadwater, and Andrea Fuller noted that the agency issued the contract without accepting bids from other companies.
This decision was backed by an "urgency" exception primarily used in times of war or in the aftermath of natural disasters. The NYT trio wrote, "By law, federal agencies are generally supposed to seek competing bids to find the vendor that provides the best deal.
"Unlike the ballroom project, which Mr. Trump says will be funded by private donations, the bill for the fountain repairs is being paid by the government. This contract has not been previously reported.
"The Trump administration did not post it in public databases of federal spending, although agencies are typically supposed to report new contracts within three business days. Contracting experts said those documents revealed that the government had repeatedly used unusual procedures to bypass competition for the project and increase the price it expected to pay.
"The Park Service, for instance, added more than $1 million to the contract’s cost estimate by accounting for inflation. Twice."
Stephen J. Kirk, an independent consultant who ran an estimate of the fountain repairs in 2022, has questioned how the Trump admin came to issue a $17.4 million contract.
"They just took the cover page of my estimate and just added a bunch of money to it. I didn't add those extra millions on there."
“As fountains go, it’s not a complicated fountain,” said Dominic Shaw, whose Texas-based company, Waterline Studios, helped refurbish the Lafayette Park fountains in 2007.
Shaw added that these particular fountains would be "bottom" of the list in terms of "complexity" when it came to renovations or repairs.
