Blumenthal Presses Trump's National Parks Service & Reflecting Pool Contractors For Answers As Firms With Close Ties To Trump Bungle Reflecting Pool Project

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), today slammed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum over the National Park Service's evasiveness and lack of transparency in its efforts to advance President Trump's various construction projects throughout the nation's capital. Following up on his previous letter to Burgum and National Park Service Acting Director Jessica Bowron, Blumenthal reiterated his previous request for documents and information related to the various projects President Trump has pursued and demanded answers about no-bid contracts for work on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that were awarded to vendors with previous relationships to President Trump.

"As I noted in my first letter, NPS's projects at President Trump's behest in the Washington, DC area have been marked by blatant corruption, a shocking lack of transparency, disregard for legal requirements, and apparent incompetence," Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Burgum and Bowron.

Blumenthal continued, "Since I last wrote to you, the conditions at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have shown the results of a haphazard procedure plagued by these issues. Rushed no-bid contracts given to unqualified vendors with previous relationships to the President resulted in a reflecting pool more covered with algae than before, with freshly painted chunks of paint peeling from the bottom to float on the pool's surface."

"The American people deserve to know how this occurred and what other issues plague the work NPS is currently undertaking in our nation's capital," Blumenthal concluded.

As Ranking Member of PSI, Blumenthal is investigating the waste, fraud, and abuse associated with President Trump's ballroom project and other construction projects throughout the nation's capital, including the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Today, Blumenthal is demanding answers from Greenwater Services, the company awarded a no-bid contract to install a water purification system in the Reflecting Pool. The owner of Greenwater Services, John J. Cafaro, is a donor to President Trump.

"The apparently flawed work undertaken by Greenwater has failed to prevent algae blooms from immediately recurring in the Reflecting Pool. This sequence of events once again raises troubling questions about whether excess taxpayer dollars are being diverted to President Trump's manifestly unqualified friends and associates, resulting in shoddy care for our nation's landmarks at an enormous expense to taxpayers," Blumenthal wrote in a letter sent today to Cafaro and Greenwater Services Chief Executive Officer Al George.

The full text of Blumenthal's letter to Burgum and Bowron is available here and below. Blumenthal's letter to Cafaro and George is available here.

Dear Secretary Burgum and Acting Director Bowron,

I write (once more) regarding the National Park Service's (NPS) evasiveness and lack of transparency in its efforts to help President Trump leave an indelible imprint on our nation's capital. On June 9, 2026, I requested that you provide information and records by June 23 on President Trump's many efforts to reshape the capital, and the questionable series of contracts that have been granted by your agencies to perform the work involved, in disregard of legal requirements and in many cases favoring those with connections to the President.^[1] I have received no response to that letter, yet events during the intervening two weeks have shown the necessity of having a full accounting provided to the American people. Accordingly, I am writing to reiterate my request and demand new information concerning recent issues with the work done at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

As I noted in my first letter, NPS's projects at President Trump's behest in the Washington, DC area have been marked by blatant corruption, a shocking lack of transparency, disregard for legal requirements, and apparent incompetence.^[2] Since I last wrote to you, the conditions at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have shown the results of a haphazard procedure plagued by these issues. Rushed no-bid contracts given to unqualified vendors with previous relationships to the President resulted in a reflecting pool more covered with algae than before, with freshly painted chunks of paint peeling from the bottom to float on the pool's surface.^[3] Without any evidence, President Trump blamed vandalism for those failures,^[4] but he has also acknowledged that the conditions have gotten so bad that the pool will need to be drained and repaired again, mere weeks after the project was purportedly completed and President Trump proclaimed it "could last for 100 years."^[5] Washington, DC will now celebrate America's 250^th birthday with an empty reflecting pool, robbing the nation of one of its most indelible landmarks for this important milestone.

The American people deserve to know how this occurred and what other issues plague the work NPS is currently undertaking in our nation's capital. Accordingly, pursuant to Senate Rule XXV of the Standing Rules of the Senate and Senate Resolution 94 (119th Cong.), Section 12, I write to reiterate my request that you provide the Subcommittee with the information and records^[6] requested in my June 9, 2026 letter by July 8, 2026, including any records created since June 9, 2026.

Please also provide the Subcommittee with the following information by July 8, 2026:

1. Which contractors did President Trump meeting with regarding the Reflecting Pool while he was in Camp David the weekend of June 20th?
2. Does NPS intend to use the same contractors who made the earlier repairs to the Reflecting Pool to undertake the new work?
3. What chemicals did NPS add to the Reflecting Pool to combat algae in the Reflecting Pool?
4. Was any environmental assessment conducted prior to the use of these chemicals in the Reflecting Pool?
5. In light of President Trump's allegations of vandalism, what steps is NPS taking to preserve evidence of the deterioration of the reflecting pool, including preserving segments of blue paint that have disintegrated?

Please contact Subcommittee staff should you have any questions about responding to this request. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

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