Trump picks new chair for agency overseeing ballroom, arch construction

President Trump on Wednesday named Mark Paoletta the chair of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), a panel overseeing his White House ballroom and Washington arch projects.

Paoletta, the general counsel of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will succeed Will Scharf as chair of the NCPC. Scharf is set to take over for David Warrington as White House counsel Monday.

The 12-member NCPC acts as the federal government’s planning agency for projects in the D.C. region. The commission is involved in the “planning, policymaking and project review” processes, specifically reviewing the design of federal and “certain” local projects, according to its website .

Panelists on the NCPC in April approved Trump’s plan to build a ballroom where the demolished East Wing once stood. Construction crews first tore down the East Wing in October, with the White House saying the ballroom will be done before the end of the president’s term.

Chief Justice John Roberts last week temporarily blocked a lower court ruling halting the project, in a case brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation nonprofit.

The order from Roberts gave the Supreme Court additional time to consider the Trump administration’s emergency appeal of the lower-court ruling.

In July, the NCPC also approved a preliminary site and building plans for a 250-foot triumphal arch Trump has proposed. The arch would be constructed near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, just across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital.

Scharf, the then-chair of the planning commission, said at the time a final vote will take place in September on whether the arch could bypass a federal law limiting building heights in D.C. to 130 feet.

In a statement, Paoletta said the president “has transformed D.C. into a capital worthy of the greatest nation in history,” according to The New York Times .

“I look forward to working with my new colleagues to further the president’s historic restoration and beautification of the National Capital Region, especially in the 250th year of our country’s independence,” he added.

In addition to his role at the Office of Management and Budget, Paoletta has been the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since the start of this month. Trump has nominated Brian Johnson to serve as the full-time head of the consumer protection agency, which the administration has sought to dismantle .

A close associate of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Paoletta represented his wife, Ginni Thomas, while the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol probed her.