1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation needs a full congressional investigation. A contract that started at $1.8 million ballooned to $14.7 million — an 800% cost overrun — and now the newly painted surface is already peeling apart. That is not vandalism. That is a failed project, and taxpayers deserve answers about who awarded that contract and why. Atlantic Industrial Coatings received this work, and within days of completion, National Park Service staff were vacuuming algae off the bottom. Now, instead of accountability, we're getting unsubstantiated claims of sabotage posted on social media with zero evidence. Blaming political opponents for what looks like a straightforward construction failure is a distraction from the real question: how did a $1.8 million job turn into a $14.7 million one, and who profited from that difference? Please demand a full accounting of this contract — the bidding process, the cost escalations, and the quality failures. This is exactly the kind of wasteful, politically driven spending that Congress exists to check.