The National Mall in Washington and various memorial sites are part of the group that do not charge visitors to enter, meaning it is legal for DOI to spend leftover revenue on projects in its own backyard.
But the amount the department has allocated to renovations so far this year appears to greatly exceed how much it has put toward maintaining the district’s public spaces in the past, according to Tony Irish, a former Interior senior attorney under Trump and an attorney under earlier presidents who is now senior counsel with the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.