Overview
- Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Robert Garcia introduced the Stop Ballroom Bribery Act this week to restrict private funding of the White House ballroom.
- The bill would ban conflicted donations, impose a two-year cooling-off period before donors may lobby, require disclosure of donor meetings within a year, and require congressional approval for foreign government gifts.
- Warren urged a future independent Justice Department to investigate the funding, calling the ballroom “a golden crime scene” and citing a five-year statute of limitations for federal bribery.
- The White House identified 37 donors to the roughly $300 million project, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Palantir.
- The Trust for the National Mall said it is managing rather than soliciting donations and cannot release donor identities under federal law, while the bill faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Congress.