WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, June 25, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley — Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee — launched an investigation into the Trump Administration’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, which has so far reportedly cost American taxpayers more than $16 million.

Within weeks of the renovation’s completion, the Reflecting Pool suffered its worst algae bloom in years, and then the pool’s new coating began peeling. Now, Merkley is demanding answers from the U.S. Department of the Interior and contractors — Atlantic Industrial Coatings, LLC and Greenwater Services — about the waste of taxpayers’ dollars.