A group of former employees claimed in a letter to Congress that Kennedy Center officials had long been aware of serious structural problems, which they cited as new problems after the sudden decision this month to close the performing arts center.
Matt Floca, the center’s general manager and chief operating officer, did not prioritize roofing issues and halted a funded plan to address them in April, according to the letter signed Thursday by attorney David Seide, who represented the anonymous whistleblowers.
Floca denied the allegations, saying recent investigations into the leaks had revealed new dangers in the building.
In a court statement in September, Floca stated that there were “serious risks to public safety” when the aging building temporarily closed its doors after examining the deterioration of the roof terrace cover and partial ceiling collapse. But former employees claim that these “acute” problems were previously known to Floca, who joined the Kennedy Center in 2024 as vice president for facilities.
“Over a year ago, Mr. Floca requested and received the funds necessary to fix the New Problems he cited,” Seide wrote, referring to the tax cut and spending bill that President Donald Trump signed in the summer of 2025. “But six months ago – with the funds at hand – he stopped the remediation process from moving forward.” In the law, Congress allocated $257 million for the Kennedy Center.
The letter, first reported by The New York Times, is the latest in a series of tensions over the iconic Potomac River waterfront building that has become a focal point as the Republican president rebuilds the nation’s capital during his second term. Trump appointed his own leadership to the center’s board of directors and put his name on the building before a judge ruled that the new letters were added illegally and ordered them removed.
The pro-Trump board voted to close the center indefinitely earlier this month, just hours after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked plans to reinstate Trump’s name to the building.
Cooper told the center it must give 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolition, as Trump has threatened. Kennedy Center leadership must also submit a status report on the temporary closure and emergency repairs by Friday at the latest.
Asked to respond to the allegations of the whistleblowers, the Kennedy Center spokesperson sent a written statement from Floca and said that the safety of patrons, artists and staff was his priority.
“The Kennedy Center has known for years that its roof overhang was leaking,” he wrote. “What we didn’t know until this summer was how far the damage had spread inside.”
Floca added that instead of halting the design plans in April, as the whistleblowers claimed, he turned the work over to a more comprehensive plan because the contractor’s bid for the initial plans was almost three times the expected cost.
“This was not a determination that the work was unnecessary, but a change in approach to sourcing and delivering work,” Floca wrote.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote a letter to Floca on Thursday after receiving the tip. Whitehouse said the documents showed Kennedy Center leadership “hoarded” funds appropriated by Congress for repairs and “blamed previous leadership for the state of the repairs.”
“My initial investigation into abuses at the center focused on nepotism and corruption, with documents revealing excessive and self-serving spending during President Trump’s presidency,” Whitehouse said. “The documents I have attached today appear to reveal a deeper level of financial mismanagement.”
A spokesman for the committee’s Republican majority did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.