Calls for IG probe of Reflecting Pool renovation come amid questions over watchdog's independence

Two Democratic senators on Tuesday asked for an investigation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation by the Interior Department inspector general, an independent oversight office whose former leader and a lawmaker say is the new workplace of a Trump political appointee. 

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the ranking members of the Environment and Public Works and Energy and Natural Resources committees respectively, submitted their request after the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. dropped charges against several individuals accused of vandalizing the landmark. Instead, federal prosecutors now say that the damage to the pool’s new lining was likely caused by faulty contractor work. 

“We urge your office to open an immediate investigation into DOI’s knowledge of coating and peeling issues with the Reflecting Pool — including what was known, who knew it and when they knew it — and whether DOI employees intentionally withheld evidence from USAO-DC,” the senators wrote. 

Caryl Brzymialkiewicz, the deputy IG at Interior, is currently leading the office after IG Mark Lee Greenblatt was removed in a mass firing of the watchdogs at the start of Trump’s second term. 

On Tuesday, Greenblatt alleged that Dennis Kirk, a co-author of the conservative Project 2025 presidential transition initiative, was installed at the Interior IG. 

“This is not about one individual, or whether Mr. Kirk is capable or well-intentioned,” Greenblatt said in a statement. “It is about whether placing a political operative inside an independent watchdog office creates a structural conflict that undermines public confidence in the office's independence.”

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, also criticized Kirk’s apparent appointment in a statement on Wednesday. 

“This man helped write the Project 2025 playbook for seizing control of the federal workforce. Now he sits inside the office charged with rooting out corruption at Interior — the department that manages our national parks, public lands, Tribal programs, and now under Trump, gold-slathered statues and a botched Reflecting Pool renovation,” he said. “That same office is weighing serious ethics investigations into senior officials in this administration. It’s no surprise the White House suddenly wants its own man inside the one place that Trump's cronies still have reason to fear.”

In response to questions about the Reflecting Pool investigation request and Kirk’s alleged appointment, a spokesperson for the Interior IG said the office has no comment. 

The Washington Post reported that in 2025 former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard assigned Kirk, then one of her advisers, to a position at the IG for the intelligence community.  

In June, the Partnership for Public Service reported that the Trump administration placed political appointees in the IG offices at the Housing and Urban Development and Labor departments. The nonprofit said that it’s rare for such government officials to work for the watchdogs because “it introduces a structural conflict of interest into an institution whose effectiveness depends on independence.”