WASHINGTON – House Republicans were singing from the same sheet music as the Trump administration July 22 when a key panel voted to name the Kennedy Center opera house after first lady Melania Trump.
“This designation is an excellent way to recognize her support and commitment to promoting the arts,” said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who shepherded the Appropriations Committee’s spending bill that funds John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, opposed the change and alleged it’s part of giving Trump power to run the Kennedy Center “with very little oversight” from Congress.
More: Trump names a new head of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in DC: himself
President Donald Trump along with First Lady Melania Trump tour the Orion Capsule Room at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 27, 2020.
“The Republicans snuck in, I think, something that is slightly divisive, which is renaming one section of the Kennedy Center after a family member of this administration,” Pingree said.
The committee voted 33-25 to adopt the name change as part of a larger amendment. The full House and the Senate would still have to vote on the proposal approved by the Appropriations Committee as part of the spending bill for the interior, environment and other agencies.
But the move reflected support from Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress. The theater would be named the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House” if the legislations becomes law.
Lawmakers have already agreed to spend $256.7 million on improvements to the Kennedy Center by 2029, as part of President Donald Trump’s legislative priorities. The House subcommittee was voting on $37.2 million in routine annual funding for the center for the year starting Oct. 1.
“The Republicans have now given the president six times the normal amount of money to run the Kennedy Center, carte blanche over who will be on the board, and how different parts of the Kennedy Center − or perhaps the whole Kennedy Center itself− will be named,” Pingree said.
Trump dismissed much of the Kennedy Center’s board after he took office and designated himself chairman. He criticized drag performances and said after the cancelation of one theatre engagement that he “never liked ‘Hamilton’ very much.”
“We’ll make it great again,” Trump said during a tour in March. “I’m very disappointed when I look around. The bottom line: It has tremendous potential.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House panel votes to name Kennedy Center opera house for Melania Trump
