Rep. Neguse Questions Interior Secretary on No-Bid Contract
Washington, D.C. — ICYMI, yesterday, Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse, the lead Democrat on the Federal Lands Subcommittee, questioned Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on his agency’s role in a series of taxpayer-funded vanity projects that President Trump is spearheading across the nation's capital—including a $13 million makeover of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The Trump administration is currently asking Congress for a $10 billion slush fund to support desired construction and rehabilitation projects across the D.C. area. That number is well above the $3.5 million deferred maintenance and repair figure reported by the National Park Service to bring assets in the region to an acceptable and safe condition. Public reporting has also suggested that some of these million-dollar contracts were awarded through a non-competitive bidding process.
Meanwhile, Trump and Burgum are seeking to enact sweeping cuts to facets of the National Park System in communities across the country—proposing a $757 million, or 26%, reduction in National Park Service operations funding.
In yesterday’s Natural Resources hearing, Rep. Neguse pressed Burgum for answers about the contractor renovating the Reflecting Pool, but the Secretary was unable to provide clarity. This builds on mounting confusion around the project after President Trump changed his own story on the matter in a series of Truth Social posts.
Watch and download the full exchange HERE. A full transcript is available below.
NEGUSE: Are you familiar with Atlantic Industrial Coatings?
BURGUM: Uh, I'm not familiar with that.
NEGUSE: So Atlantic Industrial Coatings is a company—are you familiar with that company?
BURGUM: You're saying Atlantic? I'm not familiar with Atlantic.
NEGUSE: Okay. Atlantic Industrial Coatings is the company that received a no-bid federal contract for the project at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Are you familiar with that now?
BURGUM: I'm familiar with that project. Yes.
NEGUSE: But not the company?
BURGUM: Uh, I wasn't familiar with that specific name of the company.
NEGUSE: Okay. You're familiar with the fact that a company received a no-bid contract to do the work on that project, correct?
BURGUM: I'm familiar that we have, that we're working on a project to restore, uh, the reflecting pool before the, uh, summer season with record attendance. Yes.
NEGUSE: And that was through a no-bid, $13 million contract, right? That's not up for debate. That's a fact.
BURGUM: I'm positive that we followed all of the required bidding rules. So, you're emphasizing the word no”-bid,” like something nefarious has happened. I reject that thesis.
NEGUSE: Okay, explain it to me, I’ll ask you the question. My understanding of the federal procurement rules is that a no-bid contract is reserved for situations where, “any delay would cause serious injury to the government.” Your proposition is what? That there'd be serious injury to the government if this company didn't get the $13 million contract to do this particular project right now…
BURGUM: Well, I think we do have a sense of urgency. I mean we got handed a record amount of deferred maintenance. We had 19 fountains across the city that didn’t work…
NEGUSE: That’s the serious injury to the government?
BURGUM: I'm not. I suppose a lawyer could decide that. But I think that maybe all of us could agree that we would want to have our nation's capital looking great for the 250th. I mean, this is a common-sense decision.
NEGUSE: I would say, just the last question. Who picked this company? Because President Trump, a few months ago, in a New York Times article, said, “I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools... He looked at it. He called me up. He said: ‘Sir, we can do something on it.”
Last night he posted on Truth Social: “Also, I didn't give out the contract, Interior did, to a contractor I did not know, and have never used before.” So Interior, he's talking about you. Did you give this $13 million no-bid contract to this company that's never done business with the federal government before?
BURGUM: The gentleman that you're talking about that has done, uh, construction work regarding pools and fountains for President Trump, is not part of this contract. He's working. He just, he's just a citizen that cared about it and offered some free advice. There is, there's nothing there there in terms of any dollars flowing to anybody that worked for President Trump.
NEGUSE: Then who picked this company, that’s what I’m getting at.
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