Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
Today, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent Congress home for the summer early to avoid a vote on releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein. But apparently Johnson’s colleagues in the House of Representatives had time today to pass an amendment to name the Opera House in the Kennedy Center after First Lady Melania Trump. Trump is the honorary chairwoman of the Kennedy Center, which, per Deadline, is a title also held by former first ladies.
Obviously a pressing issue currently facing the nation, the opera house is not currently named after anyone in particular. (Only the center’s Eisenhower Theater is named after a public figure; like the opera house, the Kennedy Center concert hall is named just that.) The House Appropriations Committee voted 33-25 in favor of the name change this afternoon; The Hill reports that it’s unclear when exactly the amendment could be put to a vote on the house floor, probably not helped by the fact that the house won’t be voting on anything while they hope the questions about the president’s well-documented friendship with a convicted child sex offender blow over.
The news comes on the heels of the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included $257 million in funds for a Kennedy Center remodel. Maine Democratic Representative Chellie Pingree characterized the funds as coming with “very little oversight” but granting a lot of authority over how that money will be spent.” Since reassuming the presidency in January, Donald Trump has invested a lot of attention in The Kennedy Center, replacing its existing staff with his own, who then chose him as chairman. Last month, the Trumps attended a performance of Les Misérables at the venue.
