By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Oct 2(Reuters) - When President Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to the East Wing of the White House, it took Washington by surprise. Now, there is a move in the US Congress to avoid a second such surprise with legislation to prohibit him from demolishing the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The maneuver comes on the heels of a federal judge ordering the Trump administration to provide at least 30 days' notice before taking steps to demolish the building.
Trump himself had told reporters in mid-September that unless his name was on the Kennedy Center, "It's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down."
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska authored the brief, 15-line bill, along with Democratic Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine.
"A memorial to honor a president of the United States designated by an act of Congress may not be demolished unless authorized by an act of Congress," the bill states.
Merkley and Murkowski attempted to rush the bill to passage late on Monday in the Senate, only to have Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah block it. An aide to Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Now they and Pingree — all senior appropriations committee members who oversee spending on federal buildings and parks — are eyeing new moves, such as slipping it into must-do legislation Congress is likely to fight over at the end of the year.
"We were just trying to put whatever guardrails up that we could," Pingree said in a telephone interview, given the controversy over the temporary closing of the Kennedy Center by its board, which is controlled by Trump appointees, and Trump himself raising the idea of tearing down the building on the banks of the Potomac River — unless his name was added to the edifice.
Even if the bill fails to pass, Pingree said, it provides "a strong statement from Congress," given its bipartisan backing by senior lawmakers opposing a tear-down.
"It's unbelievable that he thinks he has the right to do that," Pingree said.
If passed by Congress and signed into law — by Trump — the measure would block him from fully or partially destroying the building that opened in 1971 to honor Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. He was an advocate for the arts during his shortened presidency.
The White House directed a request for comment to an interview Trump did this week with Time magazine, in which he was asked if would refrain from destroying the building unless Congress approved. "I'm not committing to anything. We're going to see how it plays out in court," Trump said.
The Kennedy Center receives annual appropriations from Congress to maintain the building. Congress has also approved an additional $257 million to address deferred maintenance needs.
"Trump's threats to tear down the Kennedy Center, all because the law says he can’t put his name on the building, are straight out of the authoritarian playbook," Merkley said in a statement. He noted that memorials to Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson were also protected.
Murkowski, in an interview with Alaska television, said "the situation continues to kind of spiral down" as repairs to the facility have been held up by litigation.
Earlier this year, the Kennedy Center board, which is controlled by Trump appointees, approved renaming it the "Trump-Kennedy Center." His name was added to the facade before a court put a hold on the renaming.
Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland said in an interview that while Congress clearly has say over how money is spent on the Kennedy Center, he hoped Trump's advisers would rein him in. "I'm not interested in escalating the conflict," Raskin said when asked about possible legislation, before the bipartisan bill was introduced.
But he added: "We did not create a center for John F. Kennedy and any other president monarchicly minded enough to want to scrawl his name in graffiti on the building."
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Edmund Klamann)
