Attorney General Todd Blanche says the Trump administration does not need to seek a new vote from Congress to proceed with President Trump’s planned White House ballroom, arguing that lawmakers have already provided presidents with the legal authority to carry out such construction on the White House grounds.

“We don’t believe we have to go to Congress. We believe Congress has already given us the authority to do what we’re doing,” Blanche said during a Sunday appearance on Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday.”

Blanche pointed to renovations and construction undertaken by previous administrations, maintaining that Congress has long recognized broad presidential authority to make changes to the White House complex.

“Many presidents have done a tremendous amount of work to the White House, as they should, and Congress has authorized them to do so,” he added in discussion with anchor Shannon Bream, a lawyer criticized by Trump after the interview aired.

Bream pressed Blanche on why the administration would not simply request explicit congressional authorization for the project, which is estimated to cost approximately $900 million, if officials are confident that lawmakers have already granted the necessary authority.

The legal dispute has become increasingly urgent after a federal appeals court directed the administration to halt all work on the ballroom by Aug. 21 unless the Supreme Court intervenes and permits construction to continue.

Blanche said the administration is optimistic that the justices will side with the White House, while arguing that the project goes beyond providing an elaborate new venue for official events and includes significant security improvements.

“We’re hopeful that the Supreme Court recognizes that so we can get the ballroom finished as soon as possible. Remember, yes, it is a ballroom, but it’s also a meaningful upgrade and necessary part of the security of this city and the security of the president and his family,” Blanche said Sunday.

“And so it’s not just about a place for world leaders to come and have dinner, it’s also about making sure that the president and his family, guests, world leaders are safe when they’re in this city,” he added.

Democratic lawmakers have rejected the administration’s contention that the ballroom project serves a significant national-security purpose and have called on the Government Accountability Office to conduct an audit of the undertaking.

The project is being financed through a combination of taxpayer money and private donations, an arrangement that has also drawn scrutiny from critics who have questioned the transparency of the funding and the process used to approve the construction.

“The scale of this project, the destruction of historic architecture, the opaque and unorthodox combination of public funds with private funding sources, and the absence of standard federal review processes raise serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and stewardship of this national landmark,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the acting GAO comptroller general, Orice Williams Brown.