Rep. Don Beyer is leading congressional efforts to block construction of Trump’s proposed arch. Beyer’s Northern Virginia district includes the Arlington National Cemetery where his parents, grandparents, and sister are buried. He is the author of the Arlington National Cemetery Viewshed Protection Act, which would prohibit and bar funds from construction of the arch.
He said Trump’s proposed vanity arch avoids the required environmental impact statement and relies on illegal manipulations of funding without congressional authorization.
Beyer introduced H.R. 9047 on May 29th which says:
(1) IN GENERAL._Notwithstanding Any other provision of law, the establishment or construction of a triumphal arch within Lady Bird Johnson Park is prohibited, without regard to to the source of funds for such establishment of construction.
(2)PROHIBITION FUNDS._No Federal funds may be made available for the establishment or construction of a triumphal arch within Lady Bird Johnson Park.
The bill has been referred to Committee in the House of Representatives but no further action has been taken.
When the bill was introduced Beyer said, “Arlington National Cemetery is sacred ground, the resting place for some of our nation’s greatest heroes. It is unthinkable that we would desecrate this hallowed space to build a monument to Donald Trump’s ego.
“Trump’s vanity project would waste taxpayer money, brazenly violate existing law, and become yet another vehicle for his corruption. The Administration has also given no consideration to potential harmful effect on the region including impacts on air safety and traffic on major roadways.”
At the time he wrote to Federal officials requesting copies of traffic studies and any other documentation available regarding plans that the Department of the Interior and National Park Service have undertaken with respect to transportation impacts from President Trump's arch proposal. He urged in the strongest possible terms if no such studies or documentation exist, the potential traffic impacts arising from this project be immediately addressed.
Beyer’s concerns about the project’s impact on traffic in the region have not yet been addressed. He says the arch has been a consistent source of anger and concern to his constituents, who vociferously oppose the project.
Opposition has been growing from the union of airline officials as well as protestors, including a number of veterans, in early October who cited the scale, the cost, the gaudiness and lack of Congressional approval.
On Oct. 8 the Arlington County Board brought a suit in Federal court asking for a preliminary injunction to prevent any demolition or construction unless an environmental impact statement is completed. They argued that administration officials bypassed a key review process required by Federal law in their push to begin work on the structure.
Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti, says, “The Arlington County Board has filed this lawsuit because our community has the most to lose from this egregious and unlawful proposed project. We have diligently and in good faith engaged in the review process, pointing out severe, unique, and wide-ranging negative impacts to the county and our residents. Despite these concerns and that process not being complete, it was recently, unilaterally, announced that the project will move forward anyway — entirely disregarding protocol and months of work. Enough is enough. We will do all we can to hold this administration accountable and to protect and serve the best interests of our community."
The 250-foot arch would technically be built on an island in the Potomac River which is officially part of D.C. but is very close to Arlington with a population of 240,000 as well as the Pentagon and several Federal agencies.
Beyer said, “The Administration’s pursuit of Donald Trump’s deeply disrespectful arch has broken the law repeatedly, and now people from many backgrounds are banding together to fight it. I applaud Arlington County’s legal challenge, which rightly confronts the Administration’s illegal attempts to bypass legally required processes to assess the project’s impacts on the local community. Trump wants to avoid these assessments because everyone knows what an honest study would say: this arch is a costly boondoggle that would increase traffic and decrease air safety for the local community. The latter point has also been echoed by workers on the planes that fly in and out of DCA, and the safety concerns would be multiplied many times over if the structure were used as a base for military drones. The bottom line is that Trump’s arch is morally repugnant, and as his pursuit of it gets more corrupt the opposition will continue to grow.”