The Federal Reserve’s website boasts a freshly updated page explaining ongoing renovations to two buildings, in the interest of transparency.
The page neglects to mention the cost of the renovations.
The project’s price tag stands at a staggering $2.5 billion dollars, according to Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought. That’s up from a modest $1.9 billion proposal at the outset, according to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Chairman Jerome Powell has grossly mismanaged the Fed.
While continuing to run a deficit since FY23 (the first time in the Fed’s history), the Fed is way over budget on the renovation of its headquarters.
Now up to $2.5 billion, roughly $700 million over its initial cost.… pic.twitter.com/lHK4cWlAvf
— Russ Vought (@russvought) July 10, 2025
“At a time when the Fed is running an operating deficit, maintains high interest rates, and is receiving significant public scrutiny, one has to wonder whether the so-called ‘Taj Mahal near the National Mall’ project is in the best interests of the board & the public it serves,” questioned James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff. (RELATED: ALAN RECHTSCHAFFEN: Trump Is Right. It’s Time For A Common-Sense Commission To Rethink The Fed)
Blair’s instinct is correct, if too generous by a mile. Reconstructing the Taj Mahal today would only run between $400-$650 million, the Times of India estimates.
For a non-hypothetical construction cost, consider the Capitol Visitor Center. The project was completed in late 2008 with a budget of $621 million dollars.
Consult the legacy media for a round-up of the Fed’s excuses. Tariffs. Shifting contracts with construction firms. Bad soil. Inflation — a particularly amusing scapegoat from the inflation provokers-in-chief.
The Fed’s digital trail tells a different story. As early as 2021, four years after the renovations were approved by the Board of Governors, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) sounded the alarm on project management.
“The Board Can Improve the Management of Its Renovation Projects,” reads the optimistically titled OIG audit. The audit cites failures to “establish project governance” for “key planning decisions.”
Amid much corporate jargon, the audit offers this insight: “A senior official indicated that the project team did not develop all aspects of a project plan because it could not determine some planning information … before awarding the [architectural and engineering] contract and did not have a lot of time to plan.”
Time permitted the Fed to plan for a few, common-sense amenities in their 2021 final renovation review provided to the National Capital Planning Commission.
Among those featured in the document: a grand atrium with “custom-fabricated high-performance glazed skylights,” a sunken outdoor terrace, a rooftop terrace, renovations to private dining rooms and an accompanying extension to a private elevator. Some features, like new outdoor water fountains, have been axed in the intervening years, according to the Fed’s website.
President Donald Trump toured the construction site Thursday while accompanied by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
President Donald J. Trump tours the renovation and new construction of the Federal Reserve Building 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/wlw8SRnQNT
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 24, 2025
“I see a very luxurious situation taking place, let’s put it that way,” Trump commented.
Indeed. The Fed’s lavish renovations are sure to arouse instinctual disgust in Americans who feel permanently boxed out of buying even a single, modest, home. (RELATED: Housing Market Half As Affordable Than Just Three Years Ago)
The median age of first-time home buyers crept from 29 years old in 1981 to 38 years old in 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The overall numbers of first-time home buyers was at a historic low in 2024, with an annual share of just 24%.
But what good is a home if it doesn’t come equipped with high-performance skylights and a private elevator?
Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC
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