White House wants to build an underground center for security screening of visitors

Plans, including renderings of the 33,000-square-foot center, were included in the preliminary agenda released Friday for the April meeting of a federal commission that approves construction on federal land in Washington.

The screening facility would be built beneath Sherman Park, which is southeast of the White House and directly south of the Treasury building.

The park for a long time was the place where White House tourists and guests lined up for security checks before they cleared a series of trailer-type structures and walked to the East Wing entrance.

Visitors currently line up near Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, after President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing last fall to build a ballroom.

The new screening facility would have seven lanes to ease processing and reduce wait times. Construction could begin as early as August, according to the plans, as the White House said it wants the facility operating by July 2028, six months before Trump's term ends.

The monument of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in the center of Sherman Park would not be removed, according to plans for the project, which is a collaboration of the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Secret Service and the National Park Service, which manages the White House grounds.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction, planned to discuss the proposal at its April 2 meeting, according to the tentative agenda circulated Friday.

Also on that meeting agenda is a debate and a final vote on plans by the Republican president to build a 90,000-square-foot building, including a large ballroom, where the East Wing stood.