USA TODAY International Edition
U.S. government will no longer fund oil portraits
If you’re a government employee who was expecting to pose for an official portrait, kiss that dream goodbye.
President Trump on Wednesday signed into law the Eliminating Government-Funded Oil Painting Act, which bars the government from using taxpayer dollars to pay for painting portraits of government officers and employees. You can call it the EGO Act.
So who’s out of luck under this new law? The president of the United States, the vice president, members of Congress, the heads of federal agencies and the heads of offices in the legislative branch, among others.
The money spent on official portraits is a fraction of the federal budget.
But the bipartisan group of lawmakers who backed the law say that shouldn’t matter when it come to cutting back on government waste.
Lead sponsor Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., thanked Trump for signing the bill.
“I came to Congress to cut wasteful spending,” he tweeted. “Our debt is over $20 trillion. There’s no excuse for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on paintings of government officials.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., was even more pointed.
“Good riddance,” she said. “Why the government ever used taxpayer dollars to pay for fancy paintings of government officials is beyond me, and I’m glad to have worked across the aisle to eliminate this ridiculous practice.”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on portraits since 2010, according to a Senate report. Among those who have sat:
❚ Former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, $46,790, in his second official portrait.
❚ Former EPA administrator Lisa
Jackson, $38,350.
❚ Former Commerce secretary John Bryson (who served as secretary for only eight months), $22,500.
Fans of presidential portraits shouldn’t worry. Those paintings, along with portraits of the first lady and certain members of Congress are typically commissioned with private funds. The Barack and Michelle Obama portraits, for example, were funded by donors including Steven Spielberg, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen.