1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

I am writing to demand you block any and all taxpayer funding for the White House East Wing Ballroom project. When this project was first pitched, the American people were promised it would be 100% privately funded and cost taxpayers $0. Now, internal documents show the bill has skyrocketed to $600 million, and hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars are being quietly funneled into it through the Secret Service and DHS budgets. This is a massive bait-and-switch, and we will not accept it. We have already seen the disastrous results of waiving standard oversight for these vanity projects. The Lincoln Reflecting Pool was handed off in a shady, no-bid contract to an unqualified, personally connected company. It blew past its original budget by millions, failed to meet basic regulations, and has left an iconic historic site disrupted. Taxpayers are not a bottomless piggy bank meant to bail out mismanaged, no-bid contracts and broken private promises. Whether you are a Democrat, Independent, or Republican, fiscal responsibility and government ethics should be your top priority. If the private donors who promised to pay for this ballroom walked away or cannot cover the cost, the response should be a breach-of-contract lawsuit—not handing the bill to working Americans. I expect you to use your Power of the Purse to strip all funding for this project from any upcoming appropriations or reconciliation bills. I also expect Congress to exercise strict oversight and subpoena the contractors involved. Hold the line. Protect our money. Stop the grift.