WASHINGTON, D.C. — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche asked in a court filing late Sunday to resume construction on the White House ballroom, arguing that a nearby shooting over the weekend underscores the need for the security the ballroom will provide. A gunman was killed after allegedly opening fire on a U.S. Secret Service checkpoint near the White House Saturday evening, and a bystander was wounded in the incident.

Blanche wrote that without the ballroom, "the President cannot safely conduct the business of the United States." In the filing, he stated, "This second attack on the President this month underscores the critical need for top level, state of the art security at the White House, including the Ballroom, a knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing Project, which is vital for National Security, and is being constructed to ensure that the President can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility."

The planned security features include "heavy steel, drone proof roof, missile resistant and drone proof columns, bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass, Military grade venting for air conditioning and heating, and much more." The roof will also include a drone port, sniper stations, and "will be hermetically sealed to prevent malign forces from contaminating the circulating air." The facility is designed to include bomb shelters, a state-of-the-art hospital, Top Secret military installations, and protective partitioning, forming what Blanche described as a single integrated unit vital for U.S. National Security.

An appellate court has allowed construction to continue until at least early June, when a panel of judges will hear the case. A Washington, D.C. district court judge had temporarily halted construction last month until the administration obtains congressional approval. Congress left for recess last week without agreement on funding the ballroom's security, and the Senate parliamentarian previously ruled that $1 billion allocated for the project could not be included in a reconciliation bill. Blanche made a similar argument last month following a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.